Living Legend Book 1 The Frakkan Mission
by KesseliaBanta
Summary: Luke's first apprentice teaches him how to be mortal.
1. Chapter 1

**Star Wars**

**Living Legend - Book 1 - The Frakkan Mission**

**Cass Eastham 1997**

**Chapter 1**

Lieutenant Kess Lendra sat on the cold, cement floor, hunched over a gutted ion cannon from a BTL-A4, otherwise known as a Y-wing, or, at this point, a piece of junk. She huffed at the datapad in her hand and blew up at her sandy-colored bangs. Looking at the array of pieces on the floor again, she cleared her confused head and decided to start from scratch. 

Kess stood and dropped her datapad on the floor. The determined engineer refused to lose the battle against the stubborn piece of equipment. She hopped up the ladder and climbed on top of the canopy of the Gold Group's Problem Child. Blowing at her bangs one more time, she straddled the wide canopy and bent over, digging her arms deep into the cannon's empty housing.

"You're still here?" Came Stev's voice from the ground.

Kess looked up from the gaping hole in the top of the Y-wing and looked at her boss. Lieutenant Commander Stev Shorkey was a stout man with a salty personality. His straight brown hair was streaked with occasional gray and his playful brown eyes were framed with wisdom's tell-tale crow's feet. Those eyes sparkled at her as a confused voice melted into deceit. "How are you at Corellian Freighters?"

Kess shrugged at him and pushed a wisp of hair behind her ear, "First question, why wouldn't I be here?" She stood up beside the canopy and looked down at him. "Second question, it depends on what's wrong with the Freighter. . .  Can you toss me up the janson pliers, please?"

Stev casually picked up the tool from the floor and stepped to the edge of the nose, "How many Corellian Freighters have you worked on before?"

Kess casually sat down on the ship and let her feet hang off the side of the nose. "A few," she said, then realized he was evading the facts. "What's wrong with it?" she repeated.

Stev handed her the pliers and lowered his voice. "Everything."

"Boy, that tells me a lot," she groaned. She knowingly met his eyes and found them smiling back at her. "What kind of project are you going to send me on now?"

He grinned and cocked his head aside. "Why aren't you at your class this afternoon?"

Kess' eyes went wide, "It's not Tuesday!"

Stev chuckled, "It's is very much Tuesday and it's about 16:45."

She jumped up and hopped down the ladder. Dropping the pliers in the pile on the floor, she slapped his back, "See yeah tomorrow," and raced full speed to the pad core.

Ten pads surrounded the core. It was a large circle filled with diners and shops. Encircling it was a massive travelway where personnel on foot could travel from one pad to the next. Because it was so close to knock off, the travelway was starting to get crowded. Kess darted through the milling bodies to make it out of the pad complex as fast as she could. Just as she approached the archway that opened up to Pad 10, she spotted an empty seat on a runner and ran to catch up. Panting for breath, she jumped on the fast moving runner and planted herself on the bench to ride it out to the street.

Thank the Force class wasn't far from work. This wasn't the first time she was late, so she had the ol' rush-routine worked out already. As always for this time of day, the street between the pad complexes was packed with speeders and pedestrians. So, just like before, she ran to the side of Complex A and moved between her looming workplace and its exact replica next door. Now, with only a large empty alley between her and the next block, Kess bolted pass the complex, running as hard and as long as her untrained lungs would let her, but she had slowed to a jog when she reached the next block.

_That run was farther than last time_, she thought, only because she was panting too hard to speak it. Checking for racing speeders first, she tiredly crossed the next street. She usually ran out of breath long before she reached the other end of the massive block. Being late all the time was giving her more exercise than she really felt she needed, but then good old Lokey probably thought the exercise was worth her being late.

She could hear his voice as she pushed open the back door. Lokey didn't have a booming voice per say, but then the building didn't have thick walls either. She couldn't make out the words, but she listened to the wobbling bass as she dressed. In seconds, the olive drab jumpsuit was shed and the light-gray, fencing sensor suit was in its place. Carrying her helmet in one hand and the snubbed, useless sword in the other, she shyly poked through the door that led into class.

A pair of students was already on the mats and dueling. Kess carefully slunk over to the single row of benches on the other side of the room and sat down next to another gray clad student. Lokey spotted her instantly but didn't reprimand her tardiness. Lokey rarely got on her case for being late, but then _she_ was paying _him_ for the class to begin with. 

As she watched the battle in silence, she noticed something odd about the room. A quick check of the barren contents and she realized that there was one more gray clad person than usual. Lokey had added another student, which meant that the seventh sword fighter, whoever it was, was going to have to sit it out when Lokey paired them up for an exercise. While trying to determine which body was the new guy (a hard task when they were all dressed the same from head covering helmet to boot covering sheath) the buzzer suddenly rang out.

One of the swordsmen at battle stepped back and caught his balance. He saluted the winner and silently stepped off the mat. Lokey clapped his hands and called out to the class, "Okay, pair up! Lot, you pair up with Rett."

Rett was Kess' partner.

"Nice of you to join us, Lendra." Lokey said playfully from the side of the room. "Come here." 

Kess pulled off her helmet and strolled off the mat to her teacher. The members of the class paired up and moved to the mat in a small herd. Three duels casually began and Kess waited patiently and watched.

"Lendra," Lokey finally said, turning to her. "Remember how we were talking about bring in a two handed sword division?"

"Yeah." 

"Well, I was thinking that we could make them real lightsabers." He met her eyes warily as he waited for her reaction.

Kess face slowly grew into cocky grin, "Are you going to buy a medical droid to sew everyone's arms back on too?" 

"No," Lokey's ancient eyes smiled as he explained. "I was hoping that I could come up with a design for a lightsaber that didn't slice off arms and such. But I don't know anything about fine electronics, and, well, since you're the only engineer in class. . ." his face winced in wait for her reaction.

Her brown eyes squinted at him. "You want me to modify a lightsaber for you?"

"I'm willing to pay you for it," he sang gingerly. "I want a blade that stings a little but doesn't cut through mass. Can you do that?"

Kess shrugged, trying to think of the circuitry that was involved with the weapon and realized how little she knew about them. "I guess so, but I would probably need real one to go by. I don't know anything about lightsabers, Lokey." She was shaking her head, already convinced that designing a lightsaber from scratch, or actually getting a real design to edit, would both be lost causes.

Lokey put up a finger as he grinned. "I already thought of that. Jedi Skywalker-"

Kess nodded and grinned. "Skywalker," she said in unison with him, her grin growing more disbelieving by the second. When he stopped in mid-sentence and looked at her, she went from nodding to shaking her head, and almost laughing at him. "No way in a black hole, Lokey."

"Why not?"

Kess acted out her phony request to an imaginary figure. "Excuse me, Commander," she said with full attitude, "May I borrow you lightsaber for a couple of days? I want to make more of them." When she stopped, she looked back at him. "There's no way he's gonna give it to me!" She laughed even louder, "There's no way I'd even be able to get a request up through his entourage of assistants and diplomats for him to get the _chance_ to say no!"

"You don't need to borrow the thing, just get a copy of the schematic from him."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Write him a letter," he said stiffly, starting to get a little impatient with Kess' pessimistic attitude. He pulled out a data card from his inside jacket pocket and held it out to her.

"A letter?" she snorted. "You don't suppose he's on the public mail list do you?"

Lokey grinned, "No. _This_ is his direct address. Write him a letter and ask for some help." He took her hand with his and planted the datacard into her palm. "Just try, will you? With your Jedi history, you've got a better chance of getting the schematic from him than I would."

Kess didn't believe that either. She looked at the card in her hand and raised her eyebrow at him. 

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"Hey girly," Yana cooed the roommate code name as though it were a recent inside joke rather than an old one. When Kess stepped tiredly though the apartment door, the thin woman stood up from the couch and shoved a datapad into Kess' hands. "We need your market list." Yana spoke with a commanding tone that never matched her frail looks and stepped away to turn her attention on other matters at the comm desk.

Kess blinked at the fitful chestnut hair until her mind caught up with Yana's actions and then obediently scanned the list as she moved to the couch, then Kess greeted her other roommate matter-of-factly, "Hey girly." Joanne greeted back to her without tearing her black eyes off the vid's nightly hour of galactic info. Still standing by the couch, Kess started to enter a few things to the list.

"Hey, Kess," Joanne muffled through a mouthful of crumbling chips, "There's your teacher again." Her hand was already going for another fistful from the bag.

Kess paused and looked up from the list. She instantly zeroed in on the black clad figure with fluttery blonde hair and narrowed eyes.

"--negotiated by a council team headed by Counselor Leia Organa Solo. The Counselor has had a variety of success with similar treaties such as the Bakuran Truce eleven months ago. . .." The blue-faced reporter continued as the picture of the Princess and her cohorts behind her bowed to the Bakuran Governors. 

_An old picture_, Kess thought to herself. Her eyes watched Skywalker mill about in the vid's background. The cameraman was obviously more interested in Counselor Organa Solo.

"You'd think they'd come up with a more recent picture," Joanne insulted. "They are living on this system, after all."

"My thoughts exactly," Kess answered her. "Which treaty are they talking about?" She stared at the serious face on the vid until it went away and the news report moved to something else.

"Don't know. I can't keep up with them these days," Joanne mumbled. "You've always kept a closer eye on your Jedi than me, anyway."

Kess grinned at that one. "_My_ Jedi?" She hadn't yet told her roomies about Lokey's request the night before. Kess tossed the datapad on Joanne's lap and sauntered evilly to the comm desk. "I've got my eye other things besides the man's politics."

Joanne dropped her head on the back of the couch. "D'you hear that Yana? She admits it!"

Yana glanced up from her work with a sparkle in her eye. "I heard it," she assured maturely.

Kess arrogantly crossed her arms as she leaned her back up against the closet door next to the comm desk. "Lokey, my fencing teacher, wants to include lightsabers in his classes and he want me to design one that doesn't cut arms off."

Joanne smiled but didn't turn, "So, he's gonna invite the Commander to come and teach a bunch of nobodies how to use one?"

Kess grinned back, "No, he wants me to ask the Commander for a schematic to base my design on."

Yana grinned with disbelief, "Yeah, right. Like you're just gonna stroll into Rogue Group and pull him aside."

"Don't have to." Kess met the green eyes of her roommate. "Lokey gave me his mail address."

Joanne spun around on the couch. Chip crumbs were still stuck to her dark lips, when she narrowed her black eyes on Kess. "It's not his _real_ address." She said, warning Kess to keep her from getting her hopes up.

Kess shook her head with a grin, "Probably not. But it is his address. Doesn't hurt to try."

Yana sat back in the chair, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "Even if you do get through, like he's really going to give you the schematic for his lightsaber!"

Kess shrugged, "We'll see. First I have to write the letter and ask him." She began to pull at the rolled up braids behind her ears. 

"Ask him to train you." Joanne put in.

"I can't ask him that." Kess responded evenly, turning away, and closing the subject then and there. "My father would have my hide." Yana eyed her as she got up from the chair and let Kess sit in her place. Kess opened the mail program and stared at the screen for a moment. "Got any suggestions on how I should word this?"

Yana stepped away from the desk, still not believing what she was hearing. A harassing smile hid deep in her words. "Very, _very_ politely."

In a few minutes, Yana had disappeared out the door for the market and Joanne had turned off the vid entirely to go take a shower, leaving the room suddenly quiet for Kess to concentrate on her letter. For a long moment, she just stared at the blank screen in thought.

_If I were him, I would say no. But, I'm not him. I'm not even close._

She wondered what he could see beyond his human sight; what he could feel beyond his human instincts. On what dimension could he detect approaching enemies, or approaching friends? She had dozens of questions about the Force and no one in the galaxy to ask. 

At least, that's the way it used to be.

For years, Kess and her brother were told over and over that the days of the Jedi Knights were long gone. The Jedi were killed by Darth Vader because they were Jedi -- too powerful in the Force to live normal lives and too dangerous to the Empire to be allowed to live at all. That attitude they were raised with probably would have been different if her grandfather had not died under the hands of Lord Vader himself. . . but he did die… by defending the Old Republic against the Lord of the Sith; and Kess' grandmother, mother and father would never forget that.

Kess and Nik wrote it off as a loss in the end anyway. There were too many questions, and no one to ask. The possibilities were dead before they were born, so there was no use fretting over what they could have been. Nik turned his attentions to chemical biprocessing, Kess turned hers to aeronautic engineering… and their lives went on.

Then, eight years ago, Kess watched the info report on the Battle of Yavin, when the tiny rebellion finally kicked the Empire back with a force and blew the Death Star to bits. The report introduced her to a face, a name, and a title that no one had spoken in present tense for as long as Kess could remember… Jedi Knight.

Kess paid close attention to the man's accomplishments from day one. She fought off the numerous questions and burning curiosity every time she saw the Jedi on the vid. She wondered if she would ever be able to learn the ways of the Force, wondered if she was Force Sensitive to begin with, and wondered if Luke Skywalker would even care. Now that a single Jedi Knight had emerged from the galaxy soup and saved the New Alliance more than once, Kess found herself asking the same old questions and fretting over the possibilities of what she could have been. She wanted to ask so badly. . .

. . .and her father would have her hide if she did. 

Her mouth twisted to the side. That was then, this is now. She wasn't asking for an apprenticeship, nor was she asking any one of her dozens of stupid Force questions. All she wanted was the schematic to his lightsaber, and the request was not of her own initiative to begin with. Reminding herself that she wrote off the loss long ago, she leaned forward and began typing a letter that was very, very polite. . . 

**TO:       Commander Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight  144767-LSJK @ROGGRP.MIL**

**FR:       Lieutenant Kess Lendra 239940-LEND @GLDREP.MIL**

**RE:       Private Request of Assistance**

**Commander,**

**I am a repair engineer for the Alliance and also a student at Lokey's Ground Combat \ Fencing, a privately owned and operated group of classes. Mr. Poco Lokey, the school's administrator, in the interest of expanding his schedule of classes, has asked me to design a harmless version of a lightsaber. **

**It is for this purpose I kindly ask of you're assistance. If I may, I would like a copy of a schematic for a real lightsaber to base my design upon. The documents will be kept in strict confidentiality. We would appreciate any insight you may give us on this matter.**

**Thank you for your time.**

**Lt. Lendra**

The light of the comm screen glowed blue on Luke's face as his eyes scanned down the list of mail entries. His brow furrowed for an instant and, leaning his chin into his hand, he read again. The corners of his mouth began to curl upward when he hit the key to read the letter and his furrowed blonde eyebrows rose as a twinkle appeared in his eye.

Leaning back, he tapped his thumbs on the desktop as he chewed the inside of his cheek. He read the letter a second time and the twinkle turned into a grin. He leaned forward again, paused to suppress his smile and began typing a response.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Kess blew up at her bangs in boredom and pulled up one ankle to rest it on the other knee. She watched the Gold Group Commander drone on and on at the podium. It was amazing how long morning muster could be since only so much could happen in one standard day.

Her mind was just about to drift off to something more interesting, like the floor tiles, when Commander Tolgray's voice sounded out her name. "Lt. Lendra will be going on a repair-in-air for several months-"

"I am?" Her own surprised voice broke the silence of the eighty members of the Gold Group audience.

The Commander ignored her and continued, "LtJG Korbosi will be taking her place as Floor Supervisor during her absence."

"She will?" Kess' eyes went wider and her voice began to stress the comedy of the situation. She looked at Kaila Korbosi beside her.

"I am?" Kaila echoed with the same mocking humor.

Commander Tolgray's eyes narrowed on the pair of blondes in matching olive green uniforms. Only their attitudes stood out in the crowd. "I believe that Lt. Lendra will be able to properly instruct LtJG Korbosi so that the transfer will move smoothly."

"You _do_?!" Kaila and Kess echoed in unison. Stifled chuckles began to rise around them in the large muster room.

The Commander began to grin as his eyes went back to the podium and scanned for other points of interest. "Lieutenant, please see Shorkey today on the details of your trip." He concluded the discussion and the opportunity for more mocking jokes.

"YES SIR!" Kess and Kaila yelled out in a louder mocking tone and shrugged and giggled at each other about being the last to these things for the rest of muster.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"So!" Kaila dropped a datapad on Kess' cluttered desk to punctuate her arrival. She'd been watching Kess' desk from the middle of the pad awaiting her supervisor to emerge from the managers' office. "What's the story?"

Kess sighed heavily and looked up at her subordinate and best friend. This repair-in-air was starting to sound really weird. Usually, the victims of a temporary transfer knew about it long before it was announced at morning muster, and usually temporary transfers didn't happen to Floor Supervisors. Both items, in this case, were not true. Kess was slapped with a sudden departure and a whole new list of things to do.

She was responsible for ten Y-wings and nine repair engineers. She was already undermanned by one, (two if you count that idiot, Geoffrik) and now she was going to lose Kaila off the floor to fill her spot for an undetermined amount of time. This wasn't going to be easy for Kaila, and Kess hated dropping the tasks ahead onto her.

Kess rubbed her eyes and met Kaila's patient stare. "What are you working on right now?"

"Gold Six -- hyperdrive alignment and navcomputer calibration."

Kess looked passed her friend to the parked Y-wing in the distance. A lot of times, she disliked having her desk right there on the pad floor where all the ships were parked, but it sure made it easier to see what was going on without having to stand up and leave an office. "Okay, you are going to have to drop that until we can find someone to pass it to. You need to follow me around for the next week to see what's going on."

Kaila nodded as she pointed out, "Captain Shelby won't like waiting for his hyperdrive."

Kess smiled, "Captain Shelby won't die without a hyperdrive, he's only doing local watches anyway." She pulled up a stray chair from the side of the desk next to hers and patted its fraying seat cover. "I'll tell you what's going on with each item as we run into it. Grab your datapad, we'll start with the mail."

Kaila obeyed and propped her chin on her palm as she watched Kess type into her mail entries. "What's the temp job all about?"

Kess typed away as she answered, "I report next Thursday but they won't tell me to who and I will be gone between one and four months but they won't tell me to where."

"I'll bet they don't even know yet." Kaila smirked as Kess' mail listings appeared on the screen. Kaila read down the column of names that the entries were from.

Kess read the column of subject matters. Twenty-eight mail entries weren't all that much. Kess hardly got the chance to complete her review of mail and the entries always stacked up from time to time. Trying to decide which urgent complaint to deal with first, Kess heard Kaila's arm suddenly drop to the desktop.

She looked and found Kaila's eyes fixed to the screen and her mouth agape in shock. Kess' eyes followed her friend's arm to the screen until the fingertip rested on a name in the FROM list.

Commander Skywalker, Jedi Knight

Kess smiled as she keyed to the entry. She was nervous about the answer she was about to read, yet excited that he actually wrote her back! She opened the letter and read.

**TO:       Lieutenant Kess Lendra 239940-LEND @GLDREP.MIL**

**FR:       Commander Skywalker, Jedi Knight 144767-LSJK @ROGGRP.MIL**

**RE:       Response to Request**

**EC:       1 OrCad scat**

**Lt.**

**The schematic is enclosed. Please be careful with it. I would like to see the results.**

**Skywalker**

"I can _not_ believe he actually gave it to you." Kaila whispered in pleasant surprise.

"Neither do I," Kess whispered back, her grin slowly widening. She reread the short letter in disbelief. "I can't believe he actually wrote me back." She keyed to store the schematic and the letter on a datacard.

"You're going to save the letter too?"

"Yeah." Kess smiled with a slight giddiness as the file dumped to a card and she erased the letter off her comm port. "This is worth putting in a scrapbook." She pulled out the precious datacard and slid into the shin pocket of her coveralls.

Kaila snickered at Kess' groupie like attitude towards the Jedi. It was like her friend was a fan of a sports star or something. Sometimes, Kaila wondered if Kess didn't just have a crush on the Alliance's Super Hero and all that stuff about her grandfather was just a bunch of bantha fodder.

The twinkle continued to sparkle in Kess' eye, "Now all I have to do is find an OrCad program to use."

Kess spent the entire weekend trying to prepare her personal affairs for her absence. It felt like she had been running non-stop since the day she found out about the trip. Not knowing whom she would be reporting to didn't bother her. She'd find that out by Thursday. It was not knowing when she would be back that was the pain; but with her roommates' assistance on letters and bills and Kaila's diligent supervising skills waiting for the chance to blossom, Kess was able to get the 'to do list' down to a reasonable length by the time she arrived at Lokey's class the next week.

One of the things she hadn't had time for, however, was looking for that OrCad program to view the Commander's schematic on…

…but at least she had it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The buzz sounded loudly in her ears before her nerve endings registered the press of the dull blade on her abdomen. That was three, but Kess had gotten the first two. She stepped back,  saluted her faceless opponent, and moved to step off the mat when Lokey's halting voice stopped her. "Kess, you're not done yet."

She stopped and looked up. The small crowd of classmates was casually gathered on the benches and near the door. A man dressed in the same gray fencing outfit, including the faceless helmet, stood next to Lokey. It was probably Lot again, that new guy, and she reluctantly stepped back onto the mat. She didn't understand Lokey's methods when he paired his students up, but he _was_ the instructor after all. With the mat to themselves, Kess saluted Lot and waited for his return. The tall figure slowly returned the salute, and proudly went en guarde.

Kess followed his lead and the battle began. Slowly at first, the man's offensive jabbed in but increased in speed. He had an exactness to his accuracy that gave him the first point in a matter of seconds. Kess stepped back and huffed. When she fought Lot last week, she hadn't noticed such precise aim.

She raised her guard and the man came at her again. He attacked from the left and every swing came with more strength than it's previous. Kess defended, block after block, just barely stopping the swishing blade at each strike. She raised her guard in time to find it block another swing she didn't realize was coming.

Kess blinked.

His attacks began to come faster. The tactics seemed pre-calculated and soon Kess found herself smoothly defending every swing with confidence. With her pride now returning, she began to calculate an attack of her own. For the one instant she dropped her guard to lunge, his sword sunk into her arm and the buzz echoed through the room.

_He stepped back and squared his shoulders. Kess stepped back and furrowed her brow. That's it. I've had it with you! _

Kess lunged at him as soon as he was prepared for it. In the suddenness of her violent attack, he took a wavering step back to defend. Kess wouldn't let him take the initiative again, and she swung her sword with a desperate fervor, over and over. She would repeat the lunges and swings as long as she could, just waiting for him to make a mistake. 

He kept backing up and Kess found her angle. This guy wasn't thinking about the boundaries of the mat. She made a bet on that assumption and lunged in hard at his chest hoping that he would back up the two inches to push him out of bounds.

Instead, the man jumped. He jumped right over her, flipped and landed behind her, en guard. In the time it took Kess to gasp, blink, and turn around, a dull sword tip buzzed at her back.

The man squared his shoulders proudly and lowered his sword. Kess simply stared at him in amazement. She practiced gymnastics at the gym once a week, and she was pretty good at it, but she had never seen anyone flip that high from a stand still. The reflective helmet safely hid her agape mouth as she watched the man pull off his.

It was Commander Skywalker. 

He combed his fingers through his ruffled blonde hair and gave Kess a friendly smile before turning to the rapidly approaching instructor. 

Kess pulled off her helmet in shock and tightened her teeth in offense. So that's how he seemed to know her every move before she did. She had no hope of winning a match against him. Not while his used that Force of his. It wasn't a fair match. The unfairness blurted out of her mouth before checking with her brain first. "How dare you use the Force on an unarmed person!"

A blonde eyebrow rose as he handed Lokey the helmet and sword. "It's a pleasure to meet you, too." He said and then turned to her. "And your name is. . .?"

Kess abruptly closed her mouth. Did she really just say that to the man she had wanted to meet for so long? It was the first time she saw him in person and she insulted him. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. She followed Lokey and the Commander off the mat so that another pair could proceed. Now, how was she going to get out of being in trouble? The default method was, of course, just following orders. "Lieutenant Lendra, sir," she answered stiffly.

He crossed his arms at his chest and faced her. "Lendra," he repeated, as if rolling the name through human memory circuits, "did you get my schematic?"

Kess cleared her dry throat, "Yes sir."

He paused for a second, looking down at her expectantly. "And?"

Kess felt the burning pricks of nervousness in her feet and hands. She could barely hear the man's voice over the loud thumping in her heart. His icy blue eyes stared down at her and she was frozen in them. "Well, sir, I haven't- been able to find an OrCad program to read it on yet… sir."

Suddenly, a twinkle shined in blue eyes. "Well, you didn't specify which Cad program you had."

Kess began to stutter, "I d-didn't want to bother you with the details, sir." She found her posture was at attention and tried to relax her shoulders to keep from looking too scared. Always say 'sir', always say 'sir'. . ..

The Commander's crossed arms fell as he smiled white teeth. He looked at Lokey, patiently waiting for his attention, and quickly back at Kess, "If you were unarmed," he said with a grin, "you wouldn't have lasted that long." He looked at her only a moment longer and turned his shoulders, and his attention, to Lokey.

Kess inhaled at the heat of embarrassment rushing to her face. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh, relieved that the Commander was now involved in a conversation with someone else. His voice echoed in her head. Her short-term memory was stuck on blue eyes. She tried a nonchalant back step to remove herself from the intense situation, knowing that if she continued a conversation, she would embarrass herself even more.

She was able to sneak a few feet away and forced her hands to relax. In her desperate meditation, she noticed the class members shuffling about to change, pack, and go. Class time was over for this week. Kess tucked her helmet under her arm and carried her sword in to the changing room. Before she walked in through the door, she looked back.

Commander Skywalker was still there, standing casually and listening to Lokey in complete interest. He did have blue eyes, it was always hard to tell on the vid, and his hair seemed much lighter in person, too. He smiled quietly at something Lokey said and Kess' memory took a snapshot of his face in person. She went through the door and rushed to her locker. Sighing heavily, she admitted to herself that she would probably never get to see him in person again. 

She was right. By the time she changed into blue jeans and a peach colored sweater, the training room was empty, except for Lokey and Rett.

"Hey, teach?" She approached with her bag swung over her shoulder. "I'm not going to be coming back for a while. I've got a repair-in-air to do."

"Sure," Lokey said with a shrug. "You want me to hold your spot?"

Kess shook her head, "No, I don't have a clue when I'm going to be back so I'll just reregister when the time comes, okay?" She paused. "So, what's with the sudden visit from Jedi Skywalker?"

Rett grinned a little, his rich accent almost unintelligible. "He gave Lokey the twenty questions about the lightsaber schematic."

Kess cocked her head, "But he already gave it to me."

Lokey nodded, "I know, I guess he's just checking up on my intentions. He's got a lot of reasons to be nervous about the thing falling into the wrong hands."

Kess crossed her arms and laughed, "Yeah, like an entire Empire full of reasons, yeah think?"

Rett grumbled, "It's not like the schematic of a _third_ Death Star. The guy's got to lighten up." After a sigh, he jerked his chin at Kess. "So, where you going?"

Kess shrugged, even if she did know, she had an entire Empire full of reasons why she wouldn't tell them anyway. "I guess they'll tell me when I get there." She quickly changed the subject to something she was permitted to talk about. "I will get an OrCad program and modify that thing for you. I've got your mail address so I'll be in touch."

Lokey smiled tightly, "Well, have fun on your trip, Kess."

Beside him, Rett smiled at her warmly, "You better come back. I wouldn't want you to leave me paired up with the new guy."

She grinned at Rett, "You'll live."

"Take care." 

"Yeah, I'll see you around." She combed back the kinked hair off her shoulder and turn to the door. "Good night."

The chilly night air felt good on her skin. The street glowed a blue white in spots from the street lamps. The singing crickets made a pleasant tune to distract the casual listener from the deep bass hum the power made as it flowed into the pad Complexes across the street. Kess got to the sidewalk and began a short stroll home.

She saw, and spoke with, THE Commander Luke Skywalker tonight, the only Jedi Knight in existence. She remembered clearly his eyes and smile, his voice, his words. . . her words.

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Lt. Lendra reported to her Repair Supervisor just before knock-off on Wednesday, as ordered. She stood in front of his desk at a casual parade-rest and looked down at him with a smile.

Lieutenant Commander Shorkey was leaning back in his chair and finishing up a conversation with his boss, the Repair Manager, sitting in the desk next to his. The voices of the Gold Group's five management team members sounded in rattling orders and questions on the comm links, comm ports and with several more present bodies in the room. Kess ignored the usual hubbub that never quieted in the managers' office and simply watched L.C. Shorkey with a knowing grin.

When his conversation with the Repair Manager was over, he smiled back at her and leaned into his desk. "I had nothing to do with this, you know?"

"You still don't know who I'm supposed to report to, do you?"

"Yes, I do," Stev admitted, "I found out yesterday, but I still don't know how long you'll be gone. The one to four month guess was all they could give me. . .. Is Korbosi all set?"

"She's as set as she's gonna get if I'm leaving in the morning." There was no more time for training before tomorrow, but Kess knew Kaila's abilities better than Stev did. She was confident that the Lieutenant Junior Grade could handle the responsibility of eight people. "She'll be fine."

Stev nodded in trust and picked up one of many datapads off of his desk. With tightened lips, he reviewed it and then handed it to her. "Here's the list of equipment that will be staged outside the ship for you tomorrow as well as the top priority list of repairs to be done at first opportunity. You will also be performing a few little things here and there as per orders of the Captain, but as long as you get _that_ list done, you're okay. Most of the repairs are just redoing some haphazard modifications, so there will be more engineering skills at work rather than troubleshooting."

Kess reviewed the list as he spoke. It was a short list, but all the items on it were big. "Rewire the navcomputer?" she read off with raised eyebrows.

Stev smiled, "It's a privately-owned small Corellian freighter, but the Captain is in the service of the New Alliance in some political fashion or another. Repair what you can in hyperspace and tend to the rest at the final destination while the passengers attend to their business."

Commander Tolgray, a man she hardly had to have direct conversation with, stood up from his desk and stepped to Kess' side, "You were requested by name for this job." He told her seriously, "Don't disappoint them and don't disappoint me."

"Yes sir." she responded in a small voice and watched him walk away. She pulled her nervous eyes off of his back to look again at Stev, "Don't disappoint who?"

Stev paused before answering. "This is a chance to show your colors, Kess. I know you can do it, but you have to be your absolute best on this trip."

A frown creased her forehead. "Don't disappoint _who_?" she repeated.

Stev sighed and gave Kess a meaningful look with his foggy brown eyes. "Report on Pad 14 at zero five hundred to Captain Solo of the Millennium Falcon."

Stev's words halted all conversation in the room. The managers' office went deathly quiet. Everyone stared at him in shock as if they hadn't heard him right. Since Commander Tolgray knew already, he watched Kess out of the corner of his smiling eye for her reaction.

Stev cracked a grin. He knew just how heavy this assignment was. Any repair engineer in the New Alliance would jump at the chance to work on the Millennium Falcon. Any repair engineer that held pride with their reputation anyway. The engineers who just did it for the job would feel burdened by the magnitude of the work involved.

Kess' throat went dry as she imagined the Captain's face in person after seeing dozens of pictures of him on the vid. She gulped hard at the thought that very few engineers were allowed to touch the Falcon, much less do a repair-in-air.

Suddenly, Kess wondered why and how she was hand-picked if she'd never met the Falcon's Captain before. There was no reason why he would know who she was.

Stev watched her fearful eyes and dry gulp. He smiled as his hands slid arrogantly behind his head, "I guess I'll see you in four months."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

The Mash Pit was the coolest place to eat patzia. Kess and her roomies had been coming here almost every Wednesday for slightly over a standard year. She couldn't remember just how 'Deli Night' got started, but now it was a tradition. Every week, the three women (four, when Kaila tagged along) either watched a vid over deli sandwiches at home or came here to the Mash Pit for patzia and ale.

The Mash Pit usually had a moderate crowd and its regulars consisted mostly of the working class of military because it was so near the base. An occasional neon light warped the color of the low-lit overheads. Upbeat human music bee-bopped from the jukebox and a small empty dance floor huddled in front of the long bar. Everything was decorated in deep reds and wood colors from the tattered flowery carpet to the paper and cardboard menus with the prices edited by ink pen. The place looked like an urban hunting lodge. For LtJG Kaila Korbosi, it was.

Kaila's forwardness sometimes made Kess a little nervous. Kaila used to try to hook Kess up with one guy or another until Kess put a stop to the blind dates with a threat upon Kaila's life. Now Kaila's tactic was to drag Kess with her to talk to a pair of men at the bar, a pair of men on the dance floor, a pair of men in the elevator. . . .

Kess brown eyes nonchalantly searched the restaurant upon entry and hid a smile when the two women sat down at a table in the back. No pair of men in attendance tonight. Kess was safe.

They ordered four ales and one large patzia with everything on it, and by the time the holographic waiter flickered away, Yana and Joanne were hurrying through the door.

Without even putting down her bag first, Joanne slid into the chair across from Kess and looked at her with wide eyes, "You are a FOOL!"

Yana quietly sat down next to her and smiled, "I'm not sure if I got the story quite right. . . What exactly did you say to him again?"

Kess pursed her lips in embarrassment, "I said, 'How dare you use the Force against an unarmed person.'"

Joanne slapped an open hand over her eyes. "You dummy."

Kaila licked her painted lips. "Now, Kess, honey," she teased, "I thought I taught you better than that."

Kess grabbed the first mug of ale that hit the table. She took a long slow swig to try to numb the painful beating she was about to get from her friends. She shouldn't have told them about that line. They would never let her live it down. They were definitely going to remind her of her rudeness towards the galaxy famous hero over and over again tonight.

Kaila saved the day, sort of, by changing the subject. "So! They're here. Now are you going to tell us what this trip is all about?"

Kess grinned and met the casual glances as her friends sipped at full mugs. "First of all, I'd like to mention that the reason they pulled a Floor Supervisor for it was because I was asked for by name."

Yana shrugged, "Yeah, okay. So what?"

Kess sighed and grinned wider, "I'm reporting to Captain Solo of the Millennium Falcon tomorrow morning."

Yana's jaw dropped, "Solo? Really?"

Joanne chuckled, "You're in for it now, girly!"

Kaila furrowed her brow and leaned over to Kess, "You are joking, right?" Yana and Joanne weren't engineers, so they didn't understand the weight of the job as Kaila did.

"No," Kess assured, "I'm not kidding. I'd like to know, though, how in a black hole could he have asked for me by name if I've never met him before."

"You met Skywalker. Those two are pals." Joanne offered an explanation. "Maybe the Jedi wants to get to know you better." Her brows jumped up and down suggestively.

Yana shrugged, "He said you weren't unarmed after all. Maybe he thinks you're Force sensitive."

Kaila chuckled, "Right. He's going to pick out the first possible apprentice that insults him and freezes up when she talks to him." She raised her ale to her lips and finished before sipping, "No, we heard about the trip last week, she only met Skywalker last night."

Kess listened to the evidence being put on the table, "I doubt the Commander is even going on the trip anyway. The Falcon isn't a taxi for him and the Counselor. Besides, the three of them have hardly been in the same place at the same time since the Bakuran Treaty."

Joanne leaned in on her elbows, "You can't discount the possibility that he will be there. Look at the bright side, Kess. You've always wanted to meet him and you did. You've always wanted to work on the Falcon and you're going to."

Yana continued with a quiet voice, "She's always wanted to be a Jedi. . . ."

Kess shot her a look. "That's enough. I'll find out if he's going tomorrow. Right now, it doesn't matter. And if he is going, then-"

"You'll just have to find a way to make up for that unarmed person crack." Yana sputtered her words.

Kess let out a quivering sigh as her friends giggled at her. Not only did she have and extremely important and very broken ship to fix and an overbearing, non-military Captain to report to, she had to be ready to deal with a princess politician and the Jedi, of whom she insulted, for four long months. Kess took another long swig of her beer.

"You'll be fine," Joanne assured. "If he was mad at you about the remark, he would have just killed you on the spot."

Yana grinned, "Yeah, don't worry. Just keep your mouth shut and you'll be okay."

"You guys are really a lot of help." Kess told them and shook her head. The patzia slid onto the table between them and three hands went for a piece of the pie.

Kaila held back, and squinted at her beer in deep thought. "I wonder if he uses the Force during sex?"

Yana snickered as she bit at her patzia. Joanne burst out in a hearty laughter. Kess hid her embarrassed eyes with her hand and said in shock, "Kaila!"

Kaila started to grin sheepishly but her eyes twinkled, "I was just wondering."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"Good morning," said the syrupy polite voice of the computerized alarm. "It is zero four hundred."

Kess didn't move from her dead position on the single width bed. She heard the alarm. That sickeningly sweet voice was set just loud enough to be annoying. Kess was simply ignoring it, but the alarm wouldn't be ignored.

"Good morning," it repeated. "It is zero four zero one. . .. You have people to impress today."

Kess grinned into her pillow. She liked having an alarm she could program. She opened her eyes just a crack and waited for the next line that the alarm was programmed to say.

"Good morning. It is zero four zero two. . .. You have people to impress today. . .. so get your lazy butt out of bed."

She chuckled into her pillow and rolled over. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she stared up at the ceiling thinking about The Millennium Falcon… the magnitude of the job, the responsibilities, the visibility. . . .

"Good morning-"

"All right already!" Kess yelled, trying to interrupt the alarm. She jumped out of bed and hit the switch. The computers sickening voice went silent.

The chilly morning air bit at her sleepy face while Kess walked to Complex B. The streetlights were still on, regardless of the orange in the eastern sky and Kess saw only three speeders on the road during her six blocks worth of commute.

Confidently, she walked into the front gateway and moved quickly to the travelway. The shops in the pad core were just starting to open. A small diner serving primarily hot cups and pastries was bustling with all of three customers; it was the most people Kess had seen in one place all morning.

Since the layout of the complexes were exact, Kess already knew the way to Pad 14, the same route she would have taken to Pad 4. Other than the layout though, nothing was the same. Instead of finding Y-wings and small transports, she found X-wings beyond X-wings. Pads 11 through 13 were filled with nothing but X-wings. When she walked under the archway to Pad 14, she found even more X-wings, and one very dirty, very broken, Corellian Freighter.

The ramp was down and the power to the ship hummed through the pad's early morning silence. As she approached the looming craft, she saw no bodies and heard no voices. Piles of equipment were staged thirty feet away. She noticed it was all second rate stuff. The labels of a variety of Group and Division symbols meant she got whatever the Alliance had to spare, and probably not all she needed. She sighed down at the equipment and heard the sound of metal tapping on metal, servos whirring back and forth. Kess turned and saw a shiny gold protocol droid stepping down the unlit ramp.

"Good morning." She greeted the droid with a smile, happy to see that she didn't get up at oh four hundred for nothing.

The droid seemed to look at her in surprise. "Good morning. I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations."

Kess gave him her full attention, "Lieutenant Kess Lendra. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The droid's proper accent seemed to get suddenly happier. "You are the repair engineer assigned to the Millennium Falcon for our impending trip, are you not?"

"Yes, I am. Is the Captain on board? I need to report in."

"I'm afraid not, Lieutenant. Captain Solo and Counselor Organa Solo have not yet arrived. However, they should be here any moment. Chewbacca is on board at this time, you might report to him until the Captain arrives."

"Is he the First Officer?" Kess asked, glancing up the ramp and seeing nothing.

"Yes, Lieutenant."

"Then I shall report to him at once." She nodded to him and headed for the ramp. Kess had enough experience with protocol droids to know that they tended to ramble if you let them. It was just one of many little nibbles she learned at that droid repair shop in Mos Eisley. Most people didn't treat droids the way she did. Besides cutting off a rambler mid-sentence, she treated droids with the same respect as everyone else. Kess was a repair engineer down to her blood. To her, droids were people too.

She winced as she got a closer look as the craft. There were blast shots still un-repaired on its dirty gray hull, and wall panels were completely missing from the circular passageway. Rounding the slow corner towards the bridge, she stopped when a horrifying sight caught her eye.

One of many lower side panels that had been removed revealed the botched circuitry inside. Components had been spliced into a charred circuit to the point of looking like a three-dimensional honeycomb for a bee with no taste in architecture. The circuit was so badly jury-rigged that Kess could not even recognize what kind of circuit it was. She blinked, sighed, and turned around, stepping right into a furry brown wall that had not been there before.

A growl came from the wall and Kess stepped back as her eyes just kept going up, and up. Finally, at a height of eight foot three, Kess found the Wookiee's face just as he growled again.

Kess gulped.

C-3PO's voice spoke politely behind her, "Lieutenant, if I may introduce you to Chewbacca, First Officer of the Millennium Falcon."

Kess could barely get her squeaky voice above a whisper, "Lt. Lendra, reporting for duty, sir."

The large creature started a series of hoots and growls in different tones and Kess realized he was talking. So that's why they had a protocol droid around, to translate everything the First Officer had to say.

"He says that he would like you to bring your equipment on board as quickly as possible. He says you should store it in the port side of the main cargo bay."

Kess had to gulp again, "Yes, sir. Uh, where's the main cargo bay?"

Chewbacca gave her a condescending look and started to walk away. She paused and adjusted the giant travel bag over her shoulder before following him around the passageway and into the largest open space on the ship.

Scanning counterclockwise, she found it hard to believe the famous trio was willing to travel in such rugged quarters. At seven o'clock, two dinged up equipment cabinets towered the room and at nine was a well-used holograph table, huddled in a booth of a U shaped bench chair. A closed door across the room indicated a shortcut to the exit ramp and next to it was a not-so-spotless galley, smaller than the one in her barracks room. At two o'clock was a long comm terminal desk with tall, permanently mounted swivel chairs, and right before the port side passageway sat a dark blue, fluffy couch about three feet too short for humans.

Chewbacca was standing in front of the broken repulsor couch and picked it up with no effort. He hooted at her, jerking his head in the empty spot on the wall and hauled the couch to the other side of the room to drop it in front of the equipment lockers.

Kess quickly caught on, blinking away the surprise at how easily he picked up a couch, and dropped her bag in the port corner. Trying not to curl her nose at the lack of comfort in the main cargo bay, her home for the next one to four months, she turned back to the starboard passageway and went for the first load. 

C-3PO stood outside the ramp again, looking anxiously out to the empty travel way. Kess didn't ask who he was so eager to see and didn't see anyone else herself until she put the last of seven arm loads of equipment down in the port corner of the cargo bay.

"I am not going to let you go alone." A man's voice echoed in from the ramp, increasing in amplitude as the bodies approached.

Kess turned around and peered down the hall. Captain Solo and his wife, the Royal Counselor, argued as they entered through the back door instead. The back door, however, got caught on the rollers and stuck half way open. The ruggedly dressed Princess turned her annoyed face to the door and impatiently pushed it open the rest of the way. "Han, the Falcon is on its last legs. It desperately needs that overhaul. Take the opportunity while you have it."

"No one is going to work on this ship with out me. I won't leave it behind for some nobody to screw it up and I won't let you go alone!" He suddenly stopped as his eyes found a new body on his ship. For a moment, his eyes went even meaner, then, as though he just remembered, he smiled proudly and turned to his wife who was now looking quizzically at Kess and her stacks of equipment. "So, I got Admiral Drayson to lend me a repair engineer for the trip," he explained, as if that would fix it.

Chewbacca quietly stepped in from the port hall behind Kess and growled something indignant, but the pair across to room ignored him.

"This is more important than the Falcon's overhaul, I _have_ to be there on time. We only have a three hour window for a safe arrival." The Counselor in anger seemed more dangerous than her height or her fragile looks gave her credit for.

"And you will be," the Captain assured. "The Admiral promised me the absolute best engineer available." He held a hand out to Kess and looked at her expectantly, "Isn't that right?"

Kess nodded and gave him an enthusiastic, "Yes, sir!"

He smiled, "There, see? What's your name?"

"Lieutenant Kess Lendra, sir."

The Counselor crossed her arms and looked impatiently as her husband, but the Captain ignored it and carried on a show of introductions. "I'm Captain Han Solo and this is Counselor Leia Organa Solo," he looked back at his wife with an evil grin, "but you can call her, Her Highnessness."

The Counselor dropped her arms and huffed. She looked at Kess only briefly when she said, "Make sure the hyperdrive works," and hurried out of the bay.

Chewbacca hooted out a Wookiee laughter.

Solo spat back at him, "Shut up. She's going okay? I won." He turned to Kess and put his hands on his hips while her looked her clean pressed uniform up and down. "All the equipment aboard?"

"Yes, sir." She squared her shoulders at him and successfully hid the humor at the man's groveling display towards his feisty wife. Somehow, she wasn't as nervous in the presence of these two, but seeing them in person was just as weird.

Chewbacca crossed the bay to follow the Counselor's path to the bridge and Solo slowly began to follow him. "Well, bring up some diagnostics or something." He motioned haphazardly toward a terminal as he disappeared around the corner.

As soon as the room was empty, Kess turned to the main computer terminal and sat down in the high backed chair, immediately typing away at the keyboard. She had barely gotten the first sequence started when C-3PO's excited voice drifted in from the hall and was answered by a series of beeps and whistles.

The gold droid hurried into the bay's back door, rattling off about some medical droid he ran into on his latest adventure. He and a blue and white astromech droid proceeded directly to the game table and mechanically strapped themselves in.

C-3PO kept rambling on and Kess was trying to ignore him when, deep in the guts of the ship, a shuddering groan rose octaves in a matter of seconds. Kess panicked, darted across the bay, slid into the booth, and frantically found her own set of straps.

"Ah, Lieutenant," C-3PO interrupted himself, "I'd like you meet my counterpart, R2-D2."

The scuffed dome of the astromech unit beeped hello.

"Hello," Kess told him, still concentrating on her straps.

"The Lieutenant is a Repair Engineer come to attend to the Millennium Falcon during our trip."

R2-D2 quipped back with the astromech equivalent of sarcasm; "Captain Solo must really be in trouble this time."

Kess smiled as the beeps translated in her head, but decided not to comment on the R2 unit's remark. The droid probably had a very good reason for getting away with such an attitude around humans. She figured that if she paid attention, she would figure out what that reason was.

Resting her head back on the hard booth, and recognizing the sound of releasing mooring lines, she sighed heavily. _Guess the mighty Jedi isn't coming on this trip. Blast it._

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"You're late." Han complained, busily flipping switches and checking gauges.

Luke punched the door control to slide shut behind him and took the seat behind Chewie. "Sorry." He was distracted as he pulled the straps over his shoulders. He quizzically looked over his shoulder, as if looking through the walls to the main cargo bay, and turned to Leia. "Who else is on board?"

Leia smiled tightly, "He's decided to rob the Alliance of an engineer to make me feel better about the Falcon not getting its overhaul."

The buckle clicked audibly. "Han, we've only got a three hour window," he warned.

"Would you two relax!" Han whined. "Once we get into hyperspace, the time of arrival is set. And if anything does go wrong, Lendra's here to fix it."

Chewie growled a complaint.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to let her touch any critical systems until we get there." Han retorted back.

"Lendra?" Luke repeated in amazement.

"Yeah, you know her?"

Luke sat back with a disbelieving grin and tried to hide it with his fingers, "Sort of."

Han didn't really care and suddenly burst out, "Okay, we're outta here." 

The young Jedi lost himself in thought as the Falcon punched through the early morning atmosphere. He wondered if he was ready for what lie ahead and decided that he would probably never feel 'ready' for it anyway. The fact that Lieutenant Kesselia Lendra was on board could not have been purely coincidental. The Force had somehow opened the door of opportunity to him, and this was by far more than a subtle hint. 

Whether Luke was ready for it or not, he had to try.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Kess may have been a ground-pounder, but she was well aware of what hyperspace felt like. She peeled off the straps as soon as gravity caught up and dashed to the terminal to carry out her standing orders. The second diagnostic sequence began scrolling up the screen when the voices emerged from the passageway. Before Kess could turn around, one set of footsteps faded away.

Leia Organa Solo approached Kess with a calculating glare. She wore a well-worn rawhide jacket, scuffed black boots and rugged khaki pants. The woman looked nothing like the famous Princess from the late Alderaan, nothing like the youngest Ambassador of the Imperial Senate, and barely resembled the New Alliance Counselor that personally tended to so many treaties and diplomatic relations. For many years, Kess saw her on the vid in expensive dresses and uniforms, saw her bowing with leaders from dozens of systems, and even saw her at Mon Mothma's side in more than one Chief Commander Report. The Counselor seemed out of place here. In rugged clothes, on a rugged ship, with a rugged husband, she actually looked like a normal person.

"Did you go through a security check?" the Counselor asked with inquisitive eyes.

C-3PO raised a golden finger at the Counselor as he mechanically rose out of the chair. "If I may say so, Counselor, New Alliance procedures on Security Checks dictate that the recipient shall not be informed or otherwise aware that they are undergoing a Security Check before or at that time." The droid stopped in the center of the bay, awaiting a 'thank you' from the Counselor. The Counselor sighed as though the droid had spilled the beans.

Kess grinned up at her, "I don't know, ma'am."

Captain Solo interjected as he entered the bay, "Drayson wouldn't have given me an engineer who hadn't." He casually strolled over and slapped C-3PO on the arm like an old buddy. The Captain's voice was almost too kind, "Hey, Goldenrod, there's no need for you to be wasting such valuable energy while were in hyperspace. Why don't you take the opportunity to shut down to recharge for a couple of days."

"Why, thank you, sir. But please feel free to activate me if the need arises."

Solo's act was almost comical. "Of course," he nodded seriously. "It's kind of you to offer."

Kess and the Counselor watched C-3PO stiffly walk to a corner of the bay. He paused as though he sensed a note of sarcasm in the Captain's voice, but brushed it off as a matter to ignore. The lights in his eyes went out and the droid fell asleep.

Captain Solo smiled proudly at his wife until R2-D2 bumped him from behind with a series of whistles. "I need to shut down too, Captain. I am 12 days overdue for servicing and need to save the energy until I will be serviced."

The Captain's face went serious again and responded as though he understood what the astromech unit had said. "You're gonna have to ask your Master about that, Artoo." 

Kess watched the beat up dome head roll away tiredly and the Captain disappeared into the kitchen before she looked back up to the Counselor standing next to her chair. The Counselor's glare softened only a little when she leaned against the terminal desk and crossed her arms. "Do you know anything about diplomacy?"

Kess didn't read the expression as disrespect, just worried. Assuming that there was some secretive and very important mission on the other end of the trip, Kess simply played along to ease the Counselor's concerns. "Not really, ma'am. I mean, I know the Imperials are the bad guys. . . ." She shrugged pathetically.

The Counselor actually smiled a little, "Well, we have a difficult task ahead of us." She stood up straight again. "You and I can get together on the customs sometime before we arrive."

"Yes, ma'am." She watched the Counselor stroll toward the game table and turned her attentions to the third and final set of diagnostics.

"How are those diagnostics coming?" The Captain emerged from the kitchen with steamy mug and leaned his shoulder against the wall.

"Just started the third sequence, sir. I can get to those hyperdrive motivator schematics as soon as it's complete."

Captain Solo's voice stiffened, "_What_ hyperdrive motivator schematics?"

Kess saw his wary eyes and stopped breathing for an instant. She pulled the datacard out of her breast pocket and handed it to him. "My orders included a list of repairs I'm to accomplish before our return, sir."

Solo's frown deepened. He put down his mug, slid the card into a datapad and read.

"The hyperdrive motivator is the most critical item on the list, sir." Kess continued cautiously, but the Captain ignored her. He ignored his wife noisily tossing datacards on the game table from a bag, ignored the warbling of the astromech unit, and ignored the clicks of boots echoing in from the passageway. Kess turned to the port hall and instantly focused on a tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, black-clad, Jedi Knight. Her heart audibly skipped a beat and her jaw dropped agape.

"Good morning, Lieutenant." Skywalker barely glanced at her as he joined his sister at the table. Another bag full of datacards began tumbling out in a clatter.

Kess gulped and tore her eyes off the Jedi uniform. Her eyes fell on the lightsaber hanging from his belt, and again tore her eyes away to stare at the uncomfortably at the floor. At Lokey's, he was dressed in the same fencing outfit that she had. She wondered if his saber was hidden under the suit that day. She hoped he had forgotten about her remark, cursing herself about it once more, and wondered again what he had meant by his.

"Lieutenant?" Skywalker repeated. His voice rang out in her ears. 

Suddenly she noticed that all this time he had been watching her uncomfortable silence and she shook the buzzing thoughts out of her head, "Um, sorry, sir. I-I just wasn't aware that you were going. . . um, on the trip. . . sir."

Skywalker turned to the table again, sifting through the datacards and pretending not to notice her nervousness. He spoke with a politely stale tone, "Nor I, you. . .. but since you're here, maybe we can schedule a few matches. I certainly could use more practice." His eyes fell on her again for only a brief second and returned to the duties at the table. "And I'll promise not to use the Force if you like."

A picture flashed in her mind, but the scene of the two of them dressed up in fencing sensor suits on a border controlled mat didn't quite fit the available space in the cargo bay. "You carry fencing equipment on board, sir?"

"Uh, no." Skywalker smiled at her, "We have an OrCad program on board."

Her eyes closed for a long blink, cursing herself for the stupid question. "Yes, sir," she mumbled. Her eyes opened to find a datacard in front of her again.

Solo's voice was completely serious. "No hyperdrive motivator, no navcomputer, no fire control. I can't let you start tearing down my critical systems just yet."

She shot out of her chair in plea. "But, Captain, this is the list I was given-" Kess urged him.

"No." He put up a stiff finger, "You will follow my orders to the letter. You will repair what I tell you to repair _in the order_ I tell you to repair them. The people that wrote this list don't know how my ship is wired. While we're in hyperspace, you cannot touch any critical systems, and that's final."

She met his narrowed brown eyes long enough to realize just how much of a vote she had. "Yes, sir." Her shoulders slumped considerably, "What do you want me to work on first, sir?"

The Captain stepped back a pace and looked at the Commander. The Jedi was watching casually from the game table as though he didn't really care, but turned away to let the Captain deal with the disgruntled subordinate.

"The hypo-shower," the Captain finally replied.

Kess paused and blinked hard. "You want me to fix your shower?" she asked, trying not to sound disgusted.

"Yes, the shower," he said firmly. "There's too much hydrogen in the spray, it needs to be realigned."

Kess stood and set her shoulders. "The shower," she repeated. She walked with purpose to the port hall. Four months of repair-in-air and he's going to have me fix all of his creature comforts instead of the stuff that will get him killed. She made a bet that the next thing he would have her work on was the stupid repulsor couch.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Studying the fine details of a treaty was usually very boring and this one was no different. Luke rubbed his eyes and leaned into the table trying to make himself interested in the diplomatic problems of the Frakkan system. He glanced at Artoo, perched quietly across the room and noticed the carbon scoring was dimming the lights of the droid's database hookup. He thought back over time and realized it had been half a month since Artoo had been fully serviced.

Luke rubbed his eyes again and reminded himself of his priorities. First he had to deal with the treaty, then he could take care of Artoo. Otherwise he would procrastinate studying the stuff until they got there. He read on.

His Force senses alerted him before he heard her footsteps approach from the hall. She had changed into an olive drab jumpsuit and scuffed black boots but her hair was still in the same blonde bun. She carried a large brass object in her hand. The metal was discolored into greens and grays and powdery white rocks crusted the fat end.

Luke put down his datapad and watched her eyes dart nervously about the room before she looked at him. "Is the Captain on the bridge, sir?"

He leaned back in the booth and crossed his arms, "Yes, but I wouldn't bother him." After thinking about how that might have sounded to her, he added an explanation. "They don't get many chances to talk alone."

She glanced at the hall to the bridge, "I see. . . . sir." Kess blew up at her bangs and looked at the crusted piece in her hand.

From across the room, he could tell that she was diverting her eyes to anything but him and from her surface emotions he could feel a question lumped in her throat. After a minute of uncomfortable silence, he asked flatly, "What's the matter?"

Kess shrugged, "It's nothing, sir. The hypo-shower didn't need alignment. It needs cleaning. There's flexium deposits all over the filter head," She held up the disgusting object for him to view. "I can clean it off with petunic acid, but I don't know if he has any on board."

Luke smiled tightly. The lump was still in her throat. That was not the question she wanted to ask, but he was willing to play along, "Why don't you ask Chewie?"

The Lieutenant smiled shyly at the floor, "The First Officer is asleep, sir. I didn't really want to wake him over a filter head."

Luke smiled back. "That's wise." He got nervous waking Chewie up even when the Wookiee's life was in danger, and Luke was an old friend. "So take a break," he offered and reluctantly raised the datapad again.

"Um, yes sir," she mumbled and looked around the room indecisively.

Luke watched her out of the corner of his eye trying to pretend he was intently reading the datapad. She glanced back at the filter head with a sigh and set it down on one of the towers of her stacked equipment. She looked around as if wondering what to do, then those deep brown eyes landed on Artoo and she cracked and evil grin. The Lieutenant pursed her lips and whistled a bouncy astromech sentence.

Artoo slowly turned his head to look at her and whistled back a question.

Her grin grew slightly wider, "Well, I just thought you were looking a little peaked."

Artoo whistled another question.

"Yeah, sure," she motioned for him to come over and lowered to her knees, "I've got nothing better to do." Quickly, her eyes went to Luke and her smile faded, "If that's okay with you, Commander."

Luke suddenly realized his act of reading had drifted into a curious stare. "If what's okay with me?"

She looked the droid directly in his visual sensors and smiled. "Cleaning him up. He said he hasn't been serviced in a month." Again those eyes looked and him and the smile suddenly vanished, "Sir."

Luke could not help his expression. The fearful 'sirs' were getting to the point humorous, but the humor was clouding with confusion. Why hadn't he known that she spoke astromech? Surely he would have noticed before when--

Artoo interrupted his train of thought with an annoyed beep.

"Uh, yeah," he finally said, "go ahead." He already knew she worked on Y-wings, and every Y-wing had an astromech droid. It made perfect sense that she would have picked up the language somewhere along the way, but he never heard her whistle it, or listen to it with understanding before. "Where did you learn to speak astromech?"

She pulled a hand tool out of a hidden pocket of her coveralls and opened one of Artoo's front doors. "Well, sir, I can't really speak it, the beeps always mess me up." Artoo whistled something derogatory and she gave him back a derogatory "really." Then she glanced again at Luke, "I used to work at a droid repair shop in Mos Eisley Spaceport before I joined the New Alliance. It comes in pretty handy working on Y-wings, sir."

His eyebrows rose. That was a little hard to believe, but he didn't feel any deceit from her. She wasn't the kind of woman he would expect to find in Tatooine's worst collection of smugglers. His casual voice evaded his expression, "How long were you in Mos Eisley?"

She shrugged, grinning, "Oh, about twenty one years. It's a great place to be _from_."

Luke inhaled, "You're _from_ Mos Eisley?"

"Born and raised," she said proudly. "I take it you've spent some time there yourself, Commander? Most people don't even know where that is."

Luke had to check to make sure his mouth was still closed. Here he was, convinced he had the upper hand and suddenly there were two new things about her he should already have known. 

Artoo's next series of beeps pulled him out of his dumbfounded stare and the Lieutenant blinked at him in amazement. "You're kidding!" She gasped at the droid and looked at Luke with wide eyes. "_You_ are from Tatooine?!"

_Perfect, now Artoo is telling her things about me and I can't even understand what he's saying. _ "Uh, raised, not born."

"Really?" She was suddenly giddy about all this. "What part?"

Luke remembered the great social status he had to deal with on Tatooine as a moisture farmer's foster son and fought not to start sinking in his chair. The tables had turned on him and she wasn't tacking a 'sir' on the end of every sentence anymore. He swallowed a stale teenager reaction and set his chin, "Just south of Anchorhead."

Kess had to think about that one for a second. "Anchorhead?" she repeated aloud, hoping the sound of the name would jog her memory. The bells rang and a vacation trip flashed in her head. Her family had driven through there on the way to the Dune Sea. There was nothing worth stopping for in the sleepy little farming community. What would Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight and hot shot pilot be doing in a farming town? She looked at him warily, "There's not much out that way?"

The Commander nodded in a heart felt agreement, "There is _nothing_ out that way. My aunt and uncle had a moisture farm, so my whole youth revolved around the winter harvest."

Kess backed slowly away from Artoo with an unbelieving grin. All this time of watching him on the vid, she suspected some sort of royal blood or at least a rich and powerful family in his background. For a second she imagined an eighteen-year-old Luke collecting water from moisture vaporators in one of those stupid off-white wrap-around shirts that was so popular with those folks. She hesitated before asking the obvious, "You are a _farmboy_?"

The man gritted his teeth to a grin and returned his eyes to his datapad. "I am a farm boy," he verified and whipped an index finger with authority. "Now get back to work on Artoo."

Kess hid her grin the best she could, "Yes, sir." She turned her eyes to the awaiting droid and swallowed the desperate urge to giggle.

_The girlies are never gonna believe this._

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Pushing a wisp of stray hair behind her ear, Kess picked up her hand tools one by one and tossed them into her tool bag. Latching the top and picking it up, she noticed the white flexium residue covering her stomach and the front of her legs from when she had cleaned that filter head. 

"This is ridiculous," she muttered to herself, hoping the flexium would come out in the wash. On her first day on the Falcon, she had cleaned out the hypo-shower, repaired a door to a small unused cargo storage, adjusted the buttons on the keyboard to the main terminal, and calibrated the temperature gauge on the icebox. She was feeling more like a husband on vacation than a repair engineer. Kess sighed and went to the main cargo bay for dinner.

Chewbacca came out of the kitchen with two loaded plates and intercepted her stroll across the bay. He groaned and shoved a plate into her free hand.

"All eating passengers and crew take turns cooking, Lieutenant," Solo said, taking the other plate from the Wookiee and handing it to his wife. "You've got dinner tomorrow."

"Yes sir." She said and set down her tool bag. The game table was full so she sat on the short repulsor couch, stretching her legs on the floor in front of her and setting her plate on her lap.

"How's that door for the cargo storage coming?" The Captain took another plate from the Wookiee's second trip and dug in.

"The door works." Kess responded impatiently. Her attitude was starting to kick in.

"Good, tomorrow see what you can do with that repulsor couch." Solo said matter-of-factly.

Kess concentrated to keep control of her tone of voice, "With all due respect, sir. I have to get to work on that list."

"There's nothing on that list you can work on while we're in hyperspace. So relax, okay?"

"Captain Solo, before I can redesign anything on that list, I need schematics for the systems and put in hours on a Cad program. That I _can_ do in hyperspace."

Solo huffed at his plate, "Look, right now, it's time to eat. We will talk about your precious list in the morning."

"Yes, sir," she said in a low voice without removing her evil glare. A tense silence fell over the occupants at the table so Kess let it drop and returned her attention to her meal. 

_I'll fix the repulsor couch in the morning._

Kess blinked, her mouth opened to say it until she realized it wasn't her conscious mind that was thinking it. She never would have given in so fast. Shrugging it off, she shut her jaw tight and hoped schizophrenia wasn't coming on.

"What?" Solo asked.

Kess looked up wondering if she had said something, but Solo was looking at Skywalker, and Skywalker was casually watching her. The corners of his mouth started to curl upward, "Nothing, Han. Never mind."

Kess watched the Jedi return his eyes to his plate, content with himself. In sudden awareness of the Jedi mind trick, Kess dropped her fork. "Did you do that?"

He nodded without looking at her.

That bastard played one of his stupid tricks on her and she made sure her voice sounded offended by it, "Why?"

Skywalker didn't seem to care. He glanced at her proudly as he picked up his glass, "To see if you'd fall for it."

Kess swallowed hard on her attitude and realized that she wasn't quite sure of the outcome, "Did I?"

Skywalker smiled wide, "No, you didn't."

She couldn't decide whether she should feel proud or offended. Her brother never played tricks like that on her, but Nik probably didn't know how. Why would the Commander want her to fix the couch so badly? Was he simply avoiding an argument over dinner? How in the universe could he plant a thought in her head with such little effort? _Why_ would he plant a thought in her head? 

In a way, Kess did feel proud. Maybe she wasn't unarmed after all. Maybe not all of his Jedi tricks were going to work on her. Her mind wandered off to the memories of failed attempts at using the Force and the conversation at the table wandered off to the treaty at hand.

Chewbacca finally offered to assign her a bunk when she turned in her empty plate. She had seen the bunks in the passageway during the day. They were like caves mechanically carved out of the hall wall, with storage underneath and a screen to close for privacy. There was another empty bunk up the hall not ten feet away and yet another bunk ten feet in the other direction, occupied with bed linens.

The Falcon had looked huge from the outside; but inside, stuck in hyperspace and full of passengers, the quarters were beginning to seem rather cramped. Here at her bunk, near the back of the ship, she could still hear the Princess's voice from the cargo bay wobble over the constant bass of the engines drumming through hyperspace.

Kess only unpacked halfway, hoping they wouldn't be traveling too long, and lay down to read up on hyperdrive systems.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Luke got up and stretched his tired muscles. "I'll have to research a little deeper into those Usak rights," he told his yawning sister. "I don't want to form a plan against it until we understand precisely what they're asking for."       

"You're right." Leia sighed away the yawn, "We'll look at it again in the morning." She stood from the table and started to put away her reference material but paused when she saw a far away look on his face, "Are you all right?"

Luke blinked and suddenly joined her in the clean up. "I'm fine, just tired." 

Leia's eyebrow rose slightly. Luke had been acting a tad distracted. She noticed his diligence as the datacards returned to their bags. He had shoved his mind back into the here and now. What ever had distracted him was long gone until no one was looking. Leia could read Luke like a book about what he was feeling, (impressive for one who hadn't even started her Jedi training) but she had to guess on what he was feeling it about. Observation usually had to clue her in. She made a silent note to start observing him better.

Luke's eyes suddenly looked up. That wave of deviousness alerted his senses and he found Leia's purposefully innocent eyes looking back at him. "What?"

Luke gave her a pleasant grin. She wouldn't tell him what she was up to even if he held a blaster to her head. He decided to let it drop and let Leia worry about him as much as she wanted. "Nothing, good night."

"Good night, Luke." Leia kissed him on the cheek and shuffled sleepily down the starboard hall.

Luke watched her walk away and lowered his gaze with a grin. She was always trying to take care of him, trying to make him feel less lonely. Most of the time it worked. He was warmed by the fact that his sister noticed an emotion out of place, and still warmed by the fact that he actually _had_ a sister. He strolled down the quiet hall to his naked bunk and pulled out a short stack of bed linens.

Ten feet down the hall, Kess' bunk light poured out into the dark passageway. For a moment, he didn't want to disturb the Lieutenant's late night reading. . .

… but a moment later, he did.

He silently walked down the ten feet and stopped when the sleeping body came into view. The first thing he noticed was that she had showered away the grease, dirt and flexium residue from her day's work and changed into a dark green set of baggy exercise clothes. The second thing he noticed was her hand holding a datapad on her stomach. Careful not to touch her skin, he slid the datapad from her fingers and set it on the bunk's inside shelf. He traced his fingertips on the cold metal wall until they found the light switch but paused before turning it off.

In all that time he had watched her, he so rarely got the chance to actually see what she looked like. Watching someone through the Force was unique in that you watched events from that person's point of view. Unless Kesselia Lendra was looking in a mirror and Luke was actually watching her at that moment, he could not see her face. Kesselia rarely looked in a mirror outside her morning routine, and Luke had tried not to watch her during such private matters. So he had caught a glimpse of her face only a handful of times. 

As he now took the moment to study her features, she suddenly appeared too young and fragile to have the gumption required of a Jedi. Her looks were obviously deceiving. Luke already knew her better that that. For the most part, Kesselia had everything she needed to begin her training except for one thing, and Luke had to prove that she was Force Sensitive before he could even bring up the subject with her. He already had a few ideas how he was going to accomplish that. 

Remembering her retort from his first test over dinner and imagining her childlike fury if she found out about any one of the tricks he had planned in the near future, he grinned at the innocent face and switched off her bunk light.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Luke had already been awake a full hour to work out and take a shower by the time Han and Leia had emerged with groggy 'good mornings'. Chewie strolled in from his night watch shortly afterward, obviously following the scent of breakfast. Quiet talk of the plan of the day drifted to the forest terrain of the Frakkan system. The crowd was in the middle of breakfast by the time Han had noticed that the Repair Engineer was still missing. Suddenly, he glanced impatiently to the port hall. "She must think she's on vacation."

Luke's eyes shot up from his meal at Han's sudden annoyance, "She fell asleep reading last night. She probably hadn't set her alarm."

Han dropped his fork and began to rise, "That's no reason to let her sleep in."

"She's already awake," Luke held up a hand, urging Han to let the woman alone. He could easily sense Kess' location on the ship. "She just got out of the shower."

Han huffed and reluctantly sat back down. Leaning into the table with his custom fit attitude, he stared at the kid evilly and stiffened a finger. "Look, kid. It's my Repair Engineer, stop defending her."

Luke winced. _Defending her?_ He opened his mouth to argue that false observation but stopped short when his senses alerted him to her approach. 

The Lieutenant hurriedly zipped up fresh coveralls as she rushed into the bay. "I'm sorry, Captain," she gathered long clean hair in both hands and began to braid. "I fell asleep reading and forgot to set my alarm."

Han saw the pleading brown eyes and looked at Luke. The kid shrugged with an arrogant glint in his eye and suddenly Han felt like the bad guy. He poked his fork at his vegetables and muttered, "It must have been a good book."

"Hyperdrive motivator systems actually," the Lieutenant matter-of-factly admitted while turning to the kitchen for her own plate. "I thought I'd get a head start." 

Han's disposition got worse when Luke let out a small chuckle from across the table. He wished Luke would stop acting so smug, but in seconds, as Luke always did, the chuckle faded back into Jedi seriousness. Luke's laughter was never loud and never lasted long, but Han wasn't in the mood to be laughed at, at all. 

He wasn't in the mood to be predicted either. How dare she assume she was going to get her hands on that motivator today. He decided to verify the chain of command. "You should have been studying up on repulsor lifts. You've got that couch to fix this morning."

Suddenly, Luke felt the aggravation coming from two new directions. He nonchalantly glanced at Leia and found daggers in her eyes aiming for the back of her husband head. _That's_ _right. He promised Leia that the Falcon would get its overhaul_. Han wasn't looking at his wife, but staring down the irritated service member across the bay. Luke stopped chewing when he saw Kess' look to kill.

Her voice was painfully calm, "Captain, you said-"

"_I said we'd talk about it!_" he interrupted her loudly. "I also said you weren't touching any critical systems in hyperspace!"

Lendra was obviously working to keep her mouth shut. She set the fork down on the plate and left it in the kitchen. Trying to leave the scene before her attitude took over, Kess walked quickly back to the port hall. "Yes, sir."

Luke quickly straightened in his seat, "Where are you going?" he blurted out. This was getting a little out of hand. He didn't like the amount of anger seething from her emotions and he didn't even want to know how she was going to vent it in the back of the ship.

Lendra abruptly stopped and answered without turning to him, "To go read up on repulsor lifts, _sir_."

Her annoyance at him hit him like a slap in the face. That attitude was going to be hard to train out of her, "Well. . ., eat your breakfast first. You should never skip a meal."

Lendra inhaled as she turned around, "Yes, **_sir_**." She impatiently grabbed a yellow muffin and shoved it into her mouth for a tasteless bite. Chewing vigorously, Kess disappeared down the port hall.

As though that weren't enough of an incident, as soon as Kess was out of earshot, Leia started in. "You told me she would be repairing the systems that would risk out ETA!"

Han flashed to a defensive position, "We can't bring down any critical systems in hyperspace or we _won't_ make it there on time. She's only here _in case_ something goes wrong."

Luke slunk out of his seat and took his empty plate to the kitchen. Chewie quickly followed him, both trying to remove themselves from the discussion.

Apparently, Han's explanation didn't make Leia feel any better. "And what if we miss the three hour window?" She said, sliding out of the booth with Luke. "We are walking right into the Empire's back door and the Falcon is in no shape for another firefight."

Luke stepped deeper into the kitchen to get out of Leia's way, but she stopped at the door and blocked his path to nonchalantly escape. Chewie hooted quietly good night and turned to disappear down the starboard hall, leaving Luke alone with the marital argument.

"We've gotten out of worse situations, Leia." Han pointed out.

Leia slammed her empty mug on the counter. "BARELY!" Red faced, she stormed out to the bridge.

Luke crept out of the kitchen and watched Han scratch his head in perturbed defeat. Han suddenly looked up at him and his face got even more annoyed. "What?!"

Poor Han had managed to infuriate both women before breakfast was even over, and for some reason Luke found humor in the recent scene. Shaking his head at Han, Luke suppressed a grin. "You sure have a way with women, don't you?"

An eyebrow jumped up. Han picked up his plate and grinned arrogantly at Luke at he passed him to the kitchen, "Well, kid, I haven't seen you with too many dates lately."

Luke dropped his gaze and grinned.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

The uncomfortable silence of the cargo bay after the eventful breakfast brought Luke to want to power up Threepio just to have someone to talk to. Han had been on the bridge with Leia for over an hour and Kess was still hiding in the bowels of the ship. The tension hanging in the air prevented him from concentrating on Frakkan's Usak rights and his Force senses only augmented the bitterness of everyone on board.

Lendra seemed to calm down only a little when she emerged with a datapad in one hand and a tool bag in the other. The long braids were rolled up behind her ears almost like the way Leia had her hair on Endor, Luke noted, _when it was all over._ A sour taste filled his mouth at the memories of Endor even though the Ewok Light Festival was the birth of the New Alliance's most prominent holiday, Victory Day.

He could feel the aggravation from her as she plopped down in front of the couch without even glancing at him. Her patience with Han was running thin, and her intelligence was still insulted by the Captain's orders. She had been in the service of the New Alliance for five years, and three of them were in Gold Group. The years of experience alone said a lot about her capabilities as a Repair Engineer, especially having not attended the Imperial Academy as most Alliance service members had. Although the Lieutenant had a right to be angry at Han about the orders, she was going to have to learn patience, and Han was giving her some good practice.

Lendra huffed at the console of the repulsor couch and pulled out a hydrospanner. Luke tried to ignore her tense silence and touched the spot in his emotions that always calmed him down. Again with a fresh mind, Luke returned his eyes to the datapad. 

**. . . no Usak reported in recorded history as per Republic monitor 66832ADY. However, the monitor was disabled at the rise of the Palpatine Empire and has not been re-established. . ..**

_It hadn't been re-established when Palpatine fell because we haven't won back the Frakkan systems yet._

_When Palpatine fell. . ._

_Victory Day. . . ._

Victory Day was always a day of mourning and celebration at the same time. He could not feel the same high-hearted victory on Endor that every one else had because his losses were tallied up for him that day. Ben was dead, Master Yoda was dead, his father was dead, and he was the last living Jedi in the galaxy. Last but not least, Leia was, in fact, his sister, and everybody knew it, especially Han. That first Victory Day on Endor and every Victory Day since, Luke attended the ceremony, even went to the carnival on occasion, but always ended up back in his suite celebrating and mourning the victory alone.

A single loud bang interrupted his digression. Kesselia pulled away the large wrench and peered evilly into the console. 

Kesselia had spent the last Victory Day with a few friends, Luke remembered. He noticed a loss in her emotions too. He had looked on her shortly after the ceremony, when she and three others were returning to the carnival. Apparently Kesselia had felt the burdens of war at sometime during her tour of duty. Having been in the Alliance for five years of civil war, Luke would have been surprised if she had not known at least one person who died in battle.

Hopefully, the war would soon be over. Luke sighed a silent prayer, and returned to his reading.

**. . . However, the monitor was disabled at the rise of the Palpatine Empire and has not been re-established. The prophecy of the Usak is believed strictly by the Frakkan Religion. Other religions with similar beliefs are the Tikand Gorka of the Jeanot System, the Queton Dei Vecrr of the Hongryr System, and the Sith Prophets-**

_Bang!  Bang! Bang!. . . _

Luke looked up to find Kess banging on the console over and over. Starting to get just as annoyed as everyone else, Luke put down his datapad and crossed his arms. There was no way he was going to concentrate with all the tension on board, and her banging metal on metal two feet away. He opened his mouth to remind her that patience was a virtue, even with equipment, when the repulsor couch began to rise upward.

Kesselia grinned a perverse satisfaction and stood on her knees to meet the repulsor control now floating a little too high. She saw the Commander's gaping mouth out of the corner of her eye and grinned wider as she adjusted the couch's height.

"You fixed it by _banging_ on it?" the Jedi said unbelieving.

Kess slammed the console door shut and stood. "It just needed a little attitude adjustment," she said cockily and sat down on the perfectly heightened couch.

_It's not the only thing around here that needs an attitude adjustment_, Luke thought as he watched her slide her hands arrogantly behind her head.

"How long are we going to be in hyperspace?" she asked.

"We get there day after tomorrow," he answered coldly. "Why?"

She cocked her head aside with a grin, "Because I might as well take a couple of days off to study until we get there. Threepio and Artoo can fix all the stuff the Captain's been giving me."

Luke leaned back in his chair. It was the first time in years he had heard anyone complain that things were a little slow. It was rare when the gang had an uneventful day. As far he could recall, _he_ was the last one to complain. His voice dripped with sarcasm, "Are you getting bored?"

Kess nodded fervently, "_Yes sir I am_. I'm a Floor Supervisor for Gold Group for cryin' out loud. I would hope that I'm a little better engineer that not to be trusted with anything more than a repulsor couch and a hypo-shower." Her chin rocked back and forth as she said it. Maybe she thought this crowd was cool at one point in time, but in a day and a half, she had lost her patience with a Captain on a power trip, a Wookiee with a 'look who's on top of the food chain' trip and a Jedi with a 'never skip a meal' trip.

Luke gave her an annoyed look. She might have had a right to be upset with Han about the repairs but if she was trying to get on anybody's good side, she was going about it all the wrong way. What happened to the shy Lieutenant who was nervously tacking a 'sir' at the end of every sentence?

"Come here," he abruptly stood and passed her to the secondary terminal.

His quick order caught her off guard. Kess turned around to find him tapping rapidly at the keyboard and bringing up a program. Curiosity flooded out impatience and she stood to join him at the terminal. _He's not giving me the ship's schematics. . . is he? He wouldn't override the Captain like that. . . . Would he?_

As she leaned over the tall-backed chair he sat in, she squinted at the screen. It suddenly popped up in big red letters. "OrCad."

Kess blinked as the Commander stood. "Sit," he ordered her.

Dumbfounded, Kess sat down. She watched his narrowed eyes pull out a datacard from the library drawer, plug it in, and pull up a tall equipment case for him to sit on next to her. Leaning one elbow on the desktop, his narrowed eyes met hers. He flapped his harm at it and ordered expectantly, "Make me a harmless lightsaber."

Kess pulled her eyes away from his to look at the schematic. Her attitude melted away to expose the raw fear of the consequences of her actions. She could feel those cold blue eyes still on her and stiffened further. 

Luke rested his cheek on his fist as he stared at her, feeling her nervousness and using that to his advantage. He didn't like using fear as a motivator, but wanted answers without having to pluck the thoughts from her mind. "Why do you want to learn how to use one?"

Her eyes looked at him without turning her head. "I don't," she said quickly. "This was Lokey's idea, not mine." She forced her eyes back to the screen.

Luke's brow furrowed deeper. He felt the deceit from her before she even opened her mouth. "Can I give you a little piece of advice?" He said it as though he was going to give it to her whether she liked it or not.

Kess' guard went up, "What?"

He leaned in an inch closer and lowered his voice to just above a whisper. "Never lie to a Jedi."

Kess gulped hard. He could tell when she was lying? So, just tell the truth, but not the whole truth. "Uh, I guess, fencing is just getting boring?" 

The Commander's eyes softened a little. Apparently, he bought it. "How long have you been fencing?"

Kess' mind flashed back to just how quickly she had lost the match with him and the embarrassment of it returned. If half the truth worked, how about an understatement? "A little under a year."

She saw those blue eyes narrow again.

"A little under two years," she quickly corrected herself. She was going to have to test this gray area of what lies he could detect and what lies he couldn't. 

Luke nodded arrogantly, "That's better." He watched her eyes scan the screen and the gears turning in her head. She squinted in confusion, "You can fit all that into the hilt?"

"Mm hmm." Luke could feel the fear of him was slowly melting away and the attitude was all but gone. Her surface emotions were busy with curiosity and calculations as she taught herself the inner workings of a lightsaber.

"How big is the hilt?" Having worked with tiny fencing swords for a little under two years, it was no surprise to him that she felt a lightsaber hilt was rather large.

Luke recognized the weight of the object in question resting on his leg where it always was, but he didn't look at it, he already knew how big it was. Why didn't she just look at it, or even ask to see it? His expressionless stare didn't change, "Big enough to fit two hands around."

She glanced at the fist under his cheek and looked back at the screen, seeming satisfied with that answer.

"Adegan crystals?" she read aloud and then looked at him again. "I thought you use Ilum crystals?" 

_Soooo, Kesselia _**_does__ know a little more about the Jedi than she was letting on._ "Some do," he told her. "My old one was made with Ilum crystals." **

Her eyes returned to the screen, "What color was the blade?"

"Blue," he said quickly, his cheek leaning deeper into fist with impatience.

"What color is it now?" 

"Green," he said even quicker. _Just ask to see it._

Kess couldn't tell if he was annoyed or just being too serious. She glanced back at the schematic, "What type of crystal makes a red blade?"

Luke had to fight to keep his face expressionless but his thoughts spoke loudly in his head. "Taxan crystals," he said abruptly and lowered his voice again to that Jedi seriousness. "_Don't_ make them with Taxan crystals."

When she heard the tone in his voice drop so drastically, she automatically assumed that there must have been a good long story behind red lightsabers and Taxan crystals. She decided to just agree and let it drop. "Yeah, okay." It was the first time in the entire conversation that he had diverted his eyes, but the eyes were quickly back on her and, in turn, she turned back to the schematic. She started to calculate the component values in her head to determine the blade length. _A full meter? That can't be right._ "How long is the blade?"

Luke sighed and gave in. "Why don't you just ask to see it?"

Kess looked at him to see if he was serious. She couldn't deny that the idea hadn't crossed her mind, but she wouldn't have dared ask to see it. The confidence and impatience in his stare made her feel that much more nervous about it, but then, it was his idea. . .. "Can I see it?"

_SNAP-HISS._ In the time it took Kess to blink, the saber was in his hand and ignited in a full meter of glowing green-white power. With that kind of speed, she would have expected to have seen some sort of movement or jerk where his cheek met his fist, but those confident eyes hadn't flinched and remained looking at her, unblinking, past the blade.

Then Kess thought she detected a minuscule smile. She didn't look at the blade right away, but she did move her hand to guard the hilt from him 'accidentally' tipping it in the direction of her head. "Show off." 

"Show off?" he repeated in offense, but the growing grin on his face gave it away. "Well, if you're gonna be that way about it. . . ." He began to pull away the ignited hilt.

Her hand shot out to catch the intriguing toy from escaping. He was playing with her and now she knew it, "Okay, you are a show off, _sir_."

He lowered his fist to the desktop and switched off the blade, letting her have it. The green-white shrunk back into the hilt and Kess pulled it in for a closer look. 

Kesselia was relaxing around him, finally. He was too used to those who feared the unknown, who feared the Jedi. He let himself smile at the idea of someone new not tensing up around him all the time. He grinned in playful warning, "Those are pretty bold words for someone who was scared of me before."

Her eyes darted up, but quickly dropped back down to the hilt in her hand. "I wasn't scared. I was…" she raised her chin as she thought how to word it, "respectfully nervous about meeting a living legend."

He flattened his lips and dropped his gaze to his lap, "One lucky shot on the Death Star does not make me a living legend." He started to feel the pink wisps of attraction reaching for him on the Force. Luke exhaled in sudden realization. _ Oh no. _ This woman already had a crush on him.  _This is going to complicate things._

She grinned wisely at the hilt. "There is no such thing as luck."

Luke's eyes widened a little at her. He opened his mouth in bewilderment, and shut it again quickly. A fascinated smile crossed his lips. _She's likely to be a Force sensitive woman, a Mos Eisley breed, repair engineer, who isn't afraid of me, and is quoting Ben….um._

"One love," she smiled. "Your serve."

His eyes sparkled. "What's this? Verbal tennis?"

Cockily, she turned back to the schematic, "Something like that. One point every time you make the other go speechless, the first one with four points wins."

A snicker escaped his seriousness, but he quickly brought his expression back under control. "I see." He watched her concentrations return to the schematic and watched her long fingers still on the hilt of his lightsaber. It was a weird sight to see it in someone else's hand.

Her eyes went confused. She looked at the hilt and back at the screen. Thoughts buzzed with calculations until the brown eyes lit up. "Why don't you just stick in a dummy load between the generator and this oscillator. You'd still get power to the crystals, but the blade wouldn't be fatal." Her sudden excitement vanished when she looked at him for a response and found a cold glare.

Luke was staring at her on purpose, "I thought it was my serve?"

Kess grinned again, realizing that he was playing along. "Your right, it is."

He held the stare for several more seconds until he let himself smile, "Well, why don't you just stick a dummy load between the generator and the oscillator. You'd still get power to the crystals, but the blade wouldn't be fatal." The muscles in his cheeks stretched when he smiled proudly at her. He beat her at her own game. 

She was shaking her head and chuckling, opening her mouth to retort but no words came out.

Luke's eyes twinkled as he leaned over the chair to pick the hilt out of her hand, "One, one. Your serve." 

She looked up at him, "That's not fair."

They both heard the bridge door slide open and close but they both ignored it. Luke slowly stood, returning the hilt to his belt. He shrugged. "You made the rules." Holding the stare for a second longer, he finally turned to the approaching couple and held his hands out to his sides, "Are you ready to work on this treaty now?"

Leia's forehead wrinkled at him. _Luke impatient? . . ..and smiling? . . ..over a treaty?_ "Uh yeah," she said cautiously and joined him at the table.

Captain Solo passed the pair with firm eyes and proceeded directly to the terminal where Kess was sitting. He put down two handfuls of datacards on the desktop and sighed heavily. "Take a look at the hyperdrive motivator first. I want to see some suggestions by the end of the day."

Kess' eyes almost popped out of her head. "Yes, sir." She watched him abruptly move towards the table, leaving her with a pile of ship's schematics. Apparently, Her Highnessness won the argument.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Kess was in that very same chair for the entire day, happy about finally getting to work on what she came for, regardless of the unconventional modifications she found on the entire hyperdrive system. She found some good ideas in there and had started her own set of notes to take back to Gold Group for future reference, but she saw a lot of bad ideas too. One of which was probably the cause of the Counselor's hyperdrive remark just before take off.

Engrossed in electronics all day, she rarely came out of her haze to overhear the treaty discussion at the game table. She didn't understand most of it. They kept going back to a term call Usak rights, which was a mystery to Kess. What she did pick up was that the Frakkan system was under Imperial rule, and the Counselor and Commander were invited under the utmost secrecy to come and talk about what the New Alliance could offer the system. The Counselor was determined to get a hold of the Frakkan system because the Alliance needed their propulsion recourses desperately, and the Commander kept refusing to give them Usak rights.

The Captain had joined in the conversation rarely, but seemed to have just as complex political garble to say. Kess grinned at the terminal. All these years of watching them on the vid, the trio turned out to be a lot different than she expected, yet in many ways, they were just typical politicians too.

She hadn't realized the entire day had passed her by until the Captain's voice interrupted her train of thought. She shook her head back into reality and turned the swivel chair half way to give the game table her attention, "I'm sorry, sir?"

Solo looked at her expectantly, "Your report?"

Kess quickly put up a finger, "Give me twenty more minutes."

Solo shook his head, "You don't have twenty minutes. Chewie's going to be up in ten, and he wakes up hungry."

What did the Wookiee's eating habits have to do with her report? "Sir?"

"Dinner?" Han reminded her impatiently, "It's your turn to cook."

"Oh!" She glanced at the screen long enough to initiate a save of her current work and dashed to the kitchen to make dinner.

Luke made sure he was successful keeping his eyes intent on the datapad in front of him but watched Kess in the kitchen browse indecisively in front of the open pantry door. Having seen the contents when he made lunch, he knew exactly what kinds of haphazard ingredients were available. It was the perfect opportunity to try the next test on her. Maintaining his stare on the datapad and his mouth shut, he spoke out clearly to her mind just to see if she'd hear it. 

_Sulferian meat sticks._

Out of the other corner of his eye, he saw Leia suddenly look at him. He quickly met her gaze, winked, and returned his eyes to the datapad, ignoring his sister's raised eyebrows. 

Kess prepared the meal in a hurry, not wanting to upset the eight-foot-three garbage disposal before his night watch. As she sauced up the green pasta with automatic ease, the thought of her mom's Sulferian meat sticks popped in her mind. She had never tried to make the Tatooine style dish from scratch like her mom used to, but she couldn't eat the manufactured type because of her allergy to the seagan spice they always put in the mix. That meant she hadn't had the dish since her mom died, eight years now, and for no apparent reason, she suddenly really wanted some. She probably would have given it a try tonight if the Captain had all the ingredients on board to make it from scratch. She was sure the box in the pantry had that seagan spice in the mix.

The green pasta with a white sauce would have to do. She hadn't seen any chef's works come out of the other three yet, so she wasn't too worried about them being picky eaters.

Luke let out a disappointed sigh when she put the plate of pasta in front of him, but he quickly looked up and politely thanked her. He poked his fork at the pasta and sighed again when he noticed a sparkle in Leia's eye.

Leia picked up her forked and smiled at him, knowing now exactly what he was up to and what was distracting him. Without blowing his cover, she still wanted to make him feel better. Her eyes spoke for her, **_I_** _heard you_.

Luke had to smile back. He already knew Leia could hear him. That wasn't the point. _Well, that didn't work, what do I try now?_ Quietly, he began eating and decided to go back to the records to scour for more clues. 

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Luke sat alone on the repulsor couch after dinner. He reread a section of Jedi records that he had almost memorized by now and had even more datacards next to him on the cushion. He had decided that he didn't want her to start learning how to use a lightsaber unless she could learn to do it right, Force and all. However, he had no way of knowing whether or not she was Force sensitive, and few ways to test it. Supposedly, her grandfather went to the Jedi Academy, but she had not yet admitted that to Luke directly, much less prove that she was really a descendent. Still squeamish about training someone so soon after his own coronation, he even considered not training her at all. Luke glanced up at the blonde busily tapping at the terminal. The last thing he wanted was to see her temper in Darth Vader's helmet. 

Kesselia suddenly jumped out of the swivel chair and dropped a datacard on his lap the same time she proudly gave another one to Han.

Han took the datacard and replaced it with the one that was in the nearest datapad. He glanced at her annoyed and narrowed his eyes on her hyperdrive suggestion.

Luke picked up the new card off his lap and met her eyes quizzically.

"The lightsaber," she reminded him proudly.

"Ah." He replaced the Jedi notes with the card. "What kind of crystals did you use?"

"Adegan crystals, Commander," she assured, having expected the question. "But the dummy load will affect the blade color. It will be much lighter green, if not pure white."

Luke hid a grin and the schematic popped up on the screen. "At least we'll be able to tell them apart." Part of the Jedi training was to design your own lightsaber, but traditionally it was done after the apprentice had completed all the other training. Here Kesselia was, designing one before she even started. She was and expert at electro-mechanics though, which meant that redesigning a lightsaber was elementary to her anyway.

"No, this won't work," Han blurted.

Kess' face turned to fear, "What?"

Han was shaking his head and pointing at the datapad, looking at Kess like she was insane. "You can't separate the opto-electric systems from the paralight system."

"Why not," she shot back. "The signals from your paralight systems are screwing up your alluvial dampers. The way it's wired now, you should be blowing your power couplings every time you send a manual command to your hyperdrive." 

She saw his forehead wrinkle and read his expression as confusion so she patiently explained further. "You've got to separate the opto-electric streams or the alluvial dampers are going to try to follow the manual commands before they get to your hyperdrive motivator. The motivator won't catch up in time and your dampers will blow their couplings right off the manifolds trying to turn the ship by itself. You'll stay in hyperspace until you come out of hyperspace, and then you'll be stuck where you stand 'cause your dampers will be fried."

Han wasn't confused. What the Lieutenant had said was true, he was blowing his power couplings every time he sent a manual command to his hyperdrive. However, he did not appreciate the instruction from a grounded Lieutenant. The technical speech had only deepened Han's frown and attracted the stiffened attention of Luke, Leia, Chewie, and Artoo. They all waited cautiously for Han's explosive reply.

"And probably the negative power couplings too," she punctuated in the silence, crossing her arms.

Artoo whistled and Leia's memory flashed like a four alarm fire having heard that very problem before. The negative power coupling was the blown component that had them running to Cloud City with their tails between their legs. Chewie leaned back in the chair and let Han take care of it alone.

Solo didn't pull his eyes off Lendra while he pulled out the datacard and handed it back to her. His voice was forced into an evil sort of calm but rose to nearly a yell as the sentence progressed. "What you _obviously_ failed to notice, was that the motivator doesn't _have_ it's own decoder. The signals have to go through the opto-electric systems for its decoder or the alluvial dampers won't _get_ the signals at all!"

"Why don't you just slap in another decoder in the motivator?"

Han finally blew up, "BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ANOTHER DECODER! You didn't happen to bring a 7-Tin T38 with you, did you?"

Kess clenched her teeth, "No, sir."

Han slapped the table, "Well, there you have it. Find another way to do it then." He again pushed the datacard in her direction.

Kess narrowed her eyes and snatched the card out of his hand. She'd been grueling over that all day and he just canceled the idea entirely, just like that. But Kess wasn't going to get all psyched out about it here. She figured she'd been pushing the Captain's limits of patience already. Deciding to just hate him instead of argue with him, she shrugged it off and turned away from the table with a tired sounding, "Yes, sir." Fiddling with the datacard in her hand, she glanced Luke sitting shyly on the couch. Swallowing back the embarrassment of getting stomped on in front of everybody, Kess turned and disappeared down the port hall.

Chewie growled something indignant to Han.

"Well, she should have notice it if she's such a hotshot engineer," Han argued back.

Luke tried to ignore them and brought the datapad back to his sights. He saw the schematic of the lightsaber and suddenly remembered what he had been studying and why. The woman needed to learn how to relax a little, whether she was Force sensitive or not. An idea sprouted in his mind. He tapped a thumb thoughtfully on the saber's hilt as the idea formed into a plan. Deciding to use this event to his advantage, Luke tossed the datapad aside and followed Kess down the port hall. 

His pace slowed when her figure appeared around the corner. She stood at her bunk and vigorously threw the datacard to clang against the metal back wall.

Kess saw him coming and turned away. _Is he coming to make it worse with words of advice or make it worse with words of comfort?_ Trying to contain her frustration, she crossed her arms tightly and shifted her weight onto one foot. "Why am I here?" she said with tight lips.

The Commander leaned his shoulder into the wall when he reached her bunk and blinked at the question. "What do you mean?"

Kess huffed, "Commander Tolgray said that I was requested by name for this job. I want to know who requested me and why."

Luke couldn't ignore the demanding tone in her voice. She was splitting at the seams with rage. "Who's Commander Tolgray?" he asked quietly.

Kess scratched her eyebrow, "Commanding Officer of Gold Group. It's difficult for them not to have me there, y'know?"

Her surface emotions were buzzing with frustration, anger, and confusion. Dark emotions weaved together like a thin blanket shrouding the light she had underneath. He made it sound like a question without asking one. "You have an important position with Gold Group."

She sighed, "An important but lowly position. I just keep the pilots in the air," she spat. Her words faded and again broke out in anger anew, "And it wouldn't be such a task if these hot shot pilots would listen to their engineers every once in a while!"

Luke crossed his arms and grinned, "Once in a while, we do."

Kess sat down on the bunk and closed her eyes in a silent swear. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. "No offense, Commander," she muttered.

"You need to learn a little patience," he said wisely.

Kess curled her nose and whined, "Commander-"

"Relax," he ordered softly.

She rocked her head back in disbelief, "I've got a skipper on a power trip and you want me to relax? We're walking into Imperial Territory and he won't even let me fix what I can-"

His voice dropped to a serious warning. "Anger is on the Dark Side, Lieutenant."

Kess still couldn't believe that he's come back here to make her feel better. "I'd rather be on the dark side than dead! If he tries to send a manual command to the hyperdrive we'll be stranded in BFN! I mean--" She waved a hand up the hall and suddenly wanted to back pedal what she had just said. Her hand slowly came down when she saw his expression.

The Jedi Knight looked at her with raised eyebrows and a frown. "If I were you, I wouldn't be taking the dark side so lightly." 

Kess shook her head in retreat, "It doesn't matter whether or not _I_ take it lightly. _You're_ the Jedi."

Suddenly, Luke's eyes sparkled. "Tell me again why you want to learn how to use a lightsaber."

An alarm went off in Kess' head. Those blue eyes knew that he had the upper hand. Was he reading her mind too? She had made sure that she'd given him no clues that she wanted to be a Jedi. She would only be embarrassed if he found out and she didn't want to be put on the spot. "I told you," she said innocently, "fencing is getting boring."

Luke nodded at the floor and shifted his weight, "Yeah, I heard that one already. There's more to lightsabers than dueling, Kess."

Kess swallowed hard. "Yes, I'm sure there is, Commander- Jedi Skywalker, sir, etcetera, whatever. No one is going to argue with _you_ about that." She sighed heavily and rubbed her brow. She lay back onto the bed, wishing he would just go away and let her be mad.

Luke pivoted his shoulder on the wall a few degrees to see her stare up at the bunk's ceiling. He may have been the only Jedi that the Alliance knew of, but he never claimed to see all and know all. Kess had argued with him earlier that day, why would she stop now? "Why not?"

"Because," she shrugged. "I'm sure that most people think that if they argue with you you'd just-" she looked at him shyly, "kill them on the spot?"

Luke winced with a half grin, trying to decide whether to laugh or be offended. "Well, you look alive to me and you've been arguing with me for two days."

Kess shot up in defense, "Oh, I didn't say I thought that!"

He readjusted his shoulder on the wall, "Well, then what do you think?"

Kess inhaled and shut her mouth, taken aback by the question and a little confused on what precisely he was asking. She winced as she said it, "I just think that you're. . . not a force to be messed with."

Luke squeezed his eyes shut to smile and dropped his forehead on the wall.

She grinned,". . .no pun intended."

He listened to her stifled giggle when she realized what she had said and he couldn't help but smile. This was not turning out like he planned at all. "Look," he said firmly, trying to get back to the subject at hand. "You need to find a way to stop getting so irate over Han."

Kess' laugh faded and she clenched her teeth again. "But he's being so stubborn," she whined.

Luke's brow furrowed. That wasn't the right answer. "I also want to hear a better answer out of you about why you want to learn how to use a lightsaber."

Kess looked up at him, "I told you-"

He leaned forward to her, "If fencing's getting so boring, take up gymnastics or something."

She shut her mouth obediently. The guy had a point. She was treading on his turf. She had better do it by his rules. She sighed and scratched her eyebrow. "Commander, the lightsaber thing really wasn't my idea. Poco Lokey is the one you should be giving the third degree to."

Luke pulled himself off the wall and pointed at her, "You asked for the schematic, you get the hassle for it. Besides," he lowered his voice and poked a finger at his chest, "you haven't seen my third degree."

When he saw her eyes widen, he was just as surprised at the idle threat that came out of his mouth. It was a typical Han Solo tactic that Luke probably picked up from watching him fight with Leia for so many years. He realized that he'd totally lost control of the conversation and responded with emotions rather than wisdom. He failed to do what he came back here for: teach her to relax. 

Regardless, he wasn't going to let her see him perplexed over it. "Two, one," he said turning. "It's your serve again." Luke quickly removed himself from the intense conversation.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Kess put away the datapad, switched off the light in her bunk, and listened to the deep bass hum of the Falcon's hyperdrive resonate through the pillow to her ear. The lights had been dimmed for the night and everyone had been quiet in their beds for over an hour.

_'You haven't seen my third degree.'_

She remembered the look on his face when he said that. It was like he was jumping on a defense runner over something. Grinning sarcastically into the port hall, she wondered if his 'third degree' had anything to do with a red lightsaber using Taxan crystals. So, the Big Bad Jedi Knight, Defender of the Galaxy and Destroyer of the first Death Star had an embarrassing secret… but she hadn't yet heard of a politician who didn't.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Kess' eyes shot open when she heard the snap-hiss of an igniting lightsaber. At first she thought it was a dream but the sleep faded quickly and left behind that distinctive hum wavering as it moved. The Commander must have been practicing. Glancing up at her clock, she winced at the time. She could be sleeping for another hour before she had to get up, so she tried to ignore the sound of an ignited saber moving through the air. Then she heard what sounded like a shot from a tiny blaster and almost sat up straight. Two more tiny shots fired and Kess nearly panicked. Someone was shooting at Luke! She clad her coveralls over her nightshirt and tip toed warily down the hall.

With bare feet silently padding on the cold deck, she reached the Commander's unlit and neatly made bunk. Kess' shoulders relaxed. So he was practicing, at this time of the morning, and with a noisy remote. Tossing aside trying to be quiet, since _he_ obviously didn't care, she came around the corner of the bay, crossed her arms, and rested her weight onto one foot. 

Luke kept his eyes on the remote until his peripheral vision noticed her hair was still hanging over her shoulders and her coveralls were zipped only to her waist. His surprise pulled his attention away just enough to focus on her gaping coveralls and realize that there really was a shirt on underneath. It was a peach shirt, camouflaging with the rest of her skin, but a shirt nonetheless. 

His senses spoke just in time for him to clumsily block the next shot. He silently cursed himself for being distracted as easily as a seventeen-year-old boy and turned off his saber. "Good morning," he said combing his blonde bangs from his face.

Kess hadn't noticed the clumsy move because her mind was still trying to register that he was actually wearing a cream colored Tatooine-style wrap-around tunic. She rubbed her eyes and again looked at the shirt. It had been years since she had seen one of those.

"What's the matter?"

Kess shook her head sleepily. "It's not morning yet, that's all." There was no way she was going to be able to go back to sleep now. She might as well brew up some tea or something. She shuffled her bare feet to the kitchen and opened up the cupboard.

Luke grinned and turned back to the remote, re-igniting his saber and preparing for the attack.

Kess listened to his practice as she stared blankly at the brewing pot. Her thoughts were still asleep at the helm until the tiny light glowed amber and woke her attention. After pouring a cup, she strolled into the bay and watched him from the game table.

She'd seen people practice with remotes before. The ability to dodge the tiny blast shots was a requirement at almost every ground combat class in the galaxy, but, in the classes Kess had attended, they were only dodging the blast shots, not blocking them, and not from three feet away either. Here Luke was, blocking shot after shot, almost to the point of looking bored. _He's probably just showing off again._

Skywalker took two steps back and switched off his blade again, "What did you say?"

He must have been hearing things in that Force of his. Kess rested her chin in her open palm and grinned, "Does that do any good?"

"Practicing does a lot of good no matter what you are practicing," he said wisely and raised the saber's hilt en guarde.

Kess' eyes narrowed in curiosity, "What I mean is, can you really block laser bolts? If you have the remote's sequence memorized, how does that help you when a person is shooting at you?"

Luke lowered the saber without having turned it back on. He gave her a small smile to assure her. "The remote is programmed for random blasts. I haven't memorized any sequences." He strolled casually over to the table. "So, it helps a lot when a person is shooting at me." He sat down across the table from her and set the hilt down in front of him. He welcomed a quiet conversation after yet another lonely morning.

She took a sip of tea, "You must get shot at a lot."

Luke cracked a smile, "I get shot at more than you do." He leaned into the table on his elbows, holding the hilt between his hands. He stared at it for a second or two and looked up at her again. "I took a close look at your schematic last night."

"And?"

He shrugged, "Looks like it will work. We can pick up the parts on the Frakkan System."

"I'm glad you like it." She said politely and raised her cup to her lips for a sip. "You are, after all, the last living lightsaber guru."

He didn't smile more than he already was, "You still haven't told me why you want to learn how to use one. I can't give you the schematic back until I know for sure what you and Lokey are up to."

Her eyebrows rose, "Did you think I gave you my only copy? I'm gonna patent that baby and make a fortune." She watched him wince and scratched his ear. Kess chuckled, "Two, two."

Luke sighed heavily, "C'mon, Kess, I'm serious. . . . I can't let your school offer a class unless I know exactly what's going on."

Her smile faded and she shrugged, "You're little adventures have brought them a lot of attention." She motioned to the hilt on the table. Her gaze paused on the object for a second longer than necessary. "Lokey has had several people ask about it. He just wants to turn that curiosity into credits, that's all."

"What about you?" His voice was heavy with insinuation.

Kess grinned, "I already take gymnastics."

Luke grinned with tested patience and shook his head.

Kess chuckled with him. "Once a week, every Thursday. And I'm getting pretty bored with that too."

He let the humor die until an uncomfortable silence filled the air. She was avoiding his eyes again, thoughtlessly rubbing her thumb on the rim of the mug, with a question lumped in her throat. "You have a question for me."

Her eyes shot up.

"Don't you?" He added quietly, making his own statement a question.

Kess cleared her throat and shifted in her seat, "It's -- I'm just curious about a lot of things. . . not just you. . .. I mean--" She halted when her eyes landed on his again. It was an open invitation to ask him anything she wanted, and opportunity she just couldn't pass up, yet, how did he know that she wanted to ask so badly? "Can you read my mind?"

His eyebrow's rose, he glanced away for and instant and looked back, "I don't know. I haven't tried."

Curiosity flooded out shyness and fear. She leaned in on her elbows, "Then how did you know I wanted to ask you a question?"

_This is more like it_, Luke smiled to himself. "I can read your surface emotions."

"All the time?"

"Only when I pay attention to them, when you're nearby, and you're not blocking them." 

"The Force tells you what they are?"

"Surface emotions ride on the Force. I can open my mind to hear what the Force is telling me."

Her mind calculated that response and then came back even more curiously. "Are you a Jedi Master?" 

Luke blinked at the sudden change in questioning, "No."

"How do you graduate to Jedi Master?"

Luke shifted in his seat, "There used to be a formal test put on by other Masters, though I'm still studying the formality of Jedi traditions."

"But there are no Masters left to test you, are there? I thought you were the last Jedi left."

"As far as I know," he confirmed with a sigh and spoke mechanically, "I will take the title of Jedi Master when I feel confident I can train another Jedi successfully."

Kess cocked her head, "How did you know that you were Force sensitive?"

"I didn't," he admitted. "My first Master already knew and he recruited me."

She leaned forward, "And how did he know?"

"He knew my father. My father was very strong in the Force and sensitivity is hereditary."

Her eyes lit up, "It is?"

"Mm hmm." He let out a smile at her sudden excitement. "Why? Are you a Jedi descendant?"

Kess swallowed hard, "No." _Father would tie me to a bantha and drag me across the Dune Sea._

Luke watched her eyes shift and fear well up in her thoughts. She obviously had some kind of link to the Jedi, but she wasn't admitting it, and Luke search of the records showed no Lendra ever having been at the academy. Maybe she was adopted, or maybe the name Lendra was an alias. He shrugged, "So far, a descendant is the only clue I have to find Force sensitive people. And I still have yet to find one."

Kess leaned back in her chair, wondering what he was insinuating. "I guess that's the first thing you're gonna have to figure out before you get to be a Master, isn't it?"

Luke fought the urge to pluck the thoughts right out of her head. What was she hiding? And why did she think she had to hide it from him? "I'm open to suggestions." He said heavily.

"Oh, I don't know a thing about this stuff," she suddenly retreated and diverted her eyes.

Luke's tone lowered, "But you sure do have a lot of questions about it." He felt Leia approaching from the hall and prayed that his sister would remember something, anything, to have to go back to her bunk for. He wanted just a few more minutes to dig deeper into the conversation. He leaned into the table and lowered his voice to almost a whisper, "Why are you so curious?"

Kess abruptly closed her mouth. _My father would have my hide. My father would have my hide._ She met his eyes and swallowed, trying to think of something clever and subject changing to say.

Luke spoke through the Force directly to her without moving his lips. _Are you Force sensitive?_

The look on Skywalker's face matched the question she heard as his voice rang clearly in her mind. She knew instantly what he had done and he was waiting for a response to his telepathic question. 

Kess kept silent and gulped hard.

Leia strolled in with a very awake, "Good morning."

"Good morning," he said without taking his eyes off Kess. She just sat there somewhat overwhelmed as he took his saber and attached it to his belt. 

"Owe!" Han's voice pierced the bay, "Luke, how many times have I told you to put your toys away when you're done with them." The Captain rubbed his temple and grabbed at the remote still hanging quietly in the air.

Luke finally broke the stare and decided to let her think about it for a while. He hadn't noticed the playful tone Han used in his accusation and said in a very quiet, "sorry" as he stood up from the table.

Han casually handed the kid his remote and raised an eyebrow at Kess, "New uniform?"

Kess looked down and gasped. Her nightshirt was still peeking out of the gaping coveralls. She jumped up and ran out of the bay as though she had realized she was naked.

Leia stopped in her tracks to let the woman speed pass. She held out her mug to the side trying not to spill on her fresh white clothes.

Han chuckled as the blonde hair swished around the corner. "I can't keep up with her schedule. Sleep in one day, up with bright-eyes the next." He shoved a thumb in Luke's direction. "She's gonna take some getting used to."

"I don't know," Luke shrugged at Han, "I think I'm already used to the shower working right for once."

Han glared at Luke's remark and shifted his eyes to his wife laughing in agreement. Though they meant well, Han still didn't take too kindly to someone laughing at the condition of his ship. As if Chewie were in on the joke with them, the Wookiee stepped in the main cargo bay growling a report of an error in the auxiliary CV-52 filters. 

The Captain's shoulders slumped considerably. The Falcon did desperately need that overhaul, and he would need all the help he could get. 

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Kess had made it a point not to think about the Jedi's remark before breakfast. She was becoming tired of trying to guess what the mighty magician was up to and tried to make herself decide that she didn't care. What she did care about was the stupid CV-52 filter. It had taken two hours to pull the filter from the auxiliary pumps underneath the floor of the main cargo bay. It took another hour and a half to take it apart, clean it out, fix it, and put it back together. The Captain maintained his watch on the bridge during the filthy process, but was available through the commlink just in case something went wrong. Replacing the filter didn't require a lot of brainwork. Kess knew that he let her do it only because he didn't want to cram his own body in the tight space for several hours worth of work.

Kess held up the jagged assembly in one hand and was able to get a single bolt on with the other. Holding up a twenty-pound assembly perfectly still above her head was no easy task and rapidly getting harder. She began to pick up the next bolt and push it on when a water pipe next to the installation point jerked downward.

Kess' left hand shot up to catch it. The single bolt went clattering on the floor and bounced away. The durasteel pipe had to be as big around as her thigh and even heavier that the filter. A quick glance at the hardware told her that one of the securing posts she had released to install the filter had been securing the pipe as well, but it was the only securing post that the pipe had been fitted with as far as she could see. Letting go of the filter would make it hang on the single bolt she'd successfully screwed on and risk ripping the fragile circuitry in half by its own weight, and letting go of the water pipe. . . well, she liked her head in the shape it was in already.

Then, of course, she glanced at the commlink, turned off, two feet away.

Setting her jaw, she adjusted her tired grip by locking her elbows above her head. She crooned her neck to the opening she could barely see and yelled, "Heeeellllpppp!!" She heard no voices and no footsteps. She yelled louder. "HELP!"

"What's the matter?" called Leia's faraway voice.

"I need an extra pair of hands!" Kess cried. 

She heard Leia say something and then Luke call out. "Hold on."

"I'm holding! I'm holding!" she insisted. She heard uneven footsteps as he crawled down to her.

"What happened?" he asked in a regular voice squeezing his torso through the tight opening.

"The water main is about to fall on my head."

He squeezed in the cubbyhole and quickly assessed the situation, shoving his hands above his head to hold it up. "No, we can't lose the water."

Kess nodded and freed one hand to pick up the bolts, "Said like a true moisture farmer. You're concern for my well being it truly touching, Commander."

He shrugged with a smile holding the water main with both hands, "You know us farm boys."

"Yeah," she pushed another bolt onto an empty post, "and I see you're dressed the part too."

He glanced at her briefly, "It sounds like you're getting homesick."

"Homesick!" she repeated in disgust. "You don't see me living there, do yeah?" She caught his grin and screwed the last bolt in the decoder. "Naw, Tatooine's a nice place to visit, and only if I have an excuse."

A chuckle rumbled in his chest calling to her attention just how close his chest was to her face. It was a tight cubbyhole indeed and Kess dug into her tool bag for more bolts to secure the water main.

"You still have family back there?" He asked casually.

Kess picked out bolts from the array at the bottom of the bag, ignoring the Commander's tone. "I do, but my father and I don't get along too well. He doesn't like me to have such a dangerous job." She rolled her eyes back in exaggeration. 

Stepping on the bend of a jutting pipe to gain height to the water main, she was now as tall as Skywalker, yet avoided looking him directly in the eye at such close quarters. Somehow, not looking him in the eye made her feel safer from his bag of Jedi tricks.

Skywalker furrowed his brow, "Dangerous job?"

"You know, the Alliance." She started screwing on the bolt to secure the water main. "He's lost too many people to the war."

"Oh." He nodded once in understanding and seemed to look past the securing post that had his attention. "Maybe he just needs to learn to accept what you do."

Kess searched his far away stare until he blinked and looked back at her. She gave him a grin, "Sound's like words of experience."

Skywalker grinned back realizing that she wasn't aware of his lineage, "My father didn't like what I do either. But he managed to accept it before he died."

"He didn't like you in the Alliance?. . . or he didn't like you becoming a Jedi?"

Luke winced as the truth from a new perspective emerged, "Both." Flashes of Darth Vader pierced his mind. "But he understood the Jedi part. I don't know if he ever understood the Alliance part. . . . I think he did."

"There, you can let go now," she moved to find more posts to secure. Her movement paused, "Wait, I thought you were raised by your aunt and uncle on a moisture farm."

Cautiously, he pulled his hands away from the water main and watched it hang on two bolts above his head. "It's. . . kind of a long story." He looked away again in thought and brought himself quickly back to the present. "Not exactly a traditional father/son relationship."

Kess huffed. He apparently had no idea the doozies that she and her father got into. Since he wasn't even raised by his father, she couldn't imagine his family problems being worse. "Well, did you get into a fight with him every time you saw him?" She challenged and held out three bolts toward him.

He raised an eyebrow at her. He didn't quite see the point of an argument about whose father was worse. He was certain that he could put a stop to it by simply admitting who his father really was, but any distrust she might have had for the Lord of the Sith would have carried on to Luke unless she had gotten to know Luke first. He took the bolts from her and said simply, "Yes."

Her tone didn't shift away from the challenge, "And how often was that?"

He past a bolt from one hand to the other and focused on the lifelike synth-flesh of his right hand. He paused, decided not to admit that yet either, and grinned at the irony. "I can count how many times I saw my father on this hand." Luke stepped back and turned to the next empty post. "How often do you see your father?"

Kess shrugged. "Once about every year or so," she said, stepping on yet another piece of jutting equipment. "But you don't know my father. We fight every time I go down there, and they're rollers too. Not just quick tiffs or anything."

Luke smiled to himself, "If you're on speaking terms with him, Kess, I'm sure you can talk him into accepting your choice of career."

Her mind twitched at the use of her first name again but her thoughts quickly went to her father's disposition. She was silent for a minute and finally dropped the sarcasm. "He's just scared for me, that's all. . .. He's lost too many people to the Empire."

Luke finished securing the last post he could find. "See, you already understand his point of view. You're half way there." He tested the main to see if it would wiggle. It didn't.

If he was going to use her first name, she might as well use his. "Luke," she said honestly, "you don't know my father." She faced him and awaited a response. Either she was going to be reprimanded for calling him 'Luke' or he was going to be all knowing about her father. She squared her shoulders and awaited a wise Jedi comeback.

Luke faced her as he sighed. He heard his name and tasted her fear. He knew she was testing him and why. The sigh was from disappointment; she hadn't relaxed around him enough to not fear his reactions, but Luke's patience would endure without fail. As for Kess' father, Luke would argue with her later, when he could admit he was Vader's son. "Just trust me on this one, all right?"

Something in his tone told Kess just to trust him. "Sure." Probably yet another long story he wasn't willing to tell. At least he didn't say anything about her calling him by his first name, or maybe he just didn't notice. Picking up the commlink, she broke the stare and switched it on, "Skipper, the filter's mounted. I'd like to take a break before I test it."

The Captain's electronic voice came back, "Sure. It's lunch anyway."

Kess dropped the commlink into the tool bag and packed up. "But one of these days, I'm going to introduce you to my father and you'll see what I'm talking about."

Luke grinned as he turned towards the way out. "And maybe one of these days, I'll introduce you to mine."

She slunk through the tight hall behind him, "I thought you said he was dead."

Luke stopped at the ladder well and shrugged, "That's… kind of a long story too." With a quick twinkle in his eye, he stepped up the ladder.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

The vast royal blue of the ocean drifted to a violet and then a mauve before its waves crashed onto the sparkling reddish sand. Even though he stood stories high in the densely populated city erected on its coast, Levilot always found peace looking out over the empty ocean. The only ocean the Frakkan System had.

The thick wall of glass prevented the sound from penetrating his office. He had considered for a time to have a window pane removed so that he could hear the irregular calming sound, but funds were needed elsewhere. From this high up and his own aged hearing, he probably wouldn't be able to hear the sound that well anyway.

"Governor?" said Shuley's respectful voice behind him.

Levilot inhaled loudly through his nose, and snapped his mind back to his political duties. Shuley stood in front of his desk with her shoulders squared and chin high. Her red hair was pulled tight to the top of her head where it sat in a cleanly knotted circle. She had nothing in her hands, which meant that this was a private issue or a confidential issue. Levilot turned his back on his ocean and sat in the green high backed chair behind his desk.

"The report from Mugwot Pon came in about two hours ago," Shuley reported with steady black eyes. "He reports that the New Alliance council team has departed Yavin 4. At time of departure and estimated speed, I've calculated they will arrive at zero one two six tomorrow."

Levilot nodded politely to his newly appointed ambassador. So far, Shuley had exceeded in her duties since her promotion, but then she still awaited the true test. Princess Leia had a lot of power in the New Alliance council. All Shuley had to do was get the Princess's point of view on the Frakkan's side. It was not an easy task, but not impossible either. 

Still, even if Shuley failed with the treaty negotiations, there was a back up plan. Levilot always had a back up plan. If the Alliance wasn't prepared to give the Frakkan System what they needed, Levilot was prepared to take it from them anyway, right under the Princess's nose. Levilot could not have cared less who was running the galaxy, just as long as the stupid lot of them stayed off of his system. His swiveled his chair to look back out over the blue ocean and pale sky. "Are they bringing the Usak?"

Shuley patiently clasped her hands behind her back. "Mugwot Pon reported that the Usak is on board."

The Governor's thin lips smiled behind his fingers. Everything was falling into place. The hard part was still yet to come, but so far so good. "Send a message to Mugwot Pon with my personal 'job well done' and await further orders." He turned around and met Shuley's unblinking eyes. I want to here about the accommodations in Sultani when you and Daitahn return to my office in two hours." His crisp voice ordered the meeting without room for discussion, but Shuley was used to it by now.

"Yes, Governor." With an authoritative strut, she turned and left the room.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Kess really hated the way her hair was so bone dry after a hypo shower, but she had only four chances in her whole lifetime to take a real water shower. Trying to sweep the feathery strands from her face, she dressed in a baggy set of exercise clothes, grabbed a datacard from her bunk and strolled barefoot into the cargo bay.

Threepio had been turned on after dinner to pick apart Frakkan protocol with the Counselor. He was standing in front of her, full of power and rambling on in his whinny, proper accent. Her long chestnut hair moved back and forth across her back as she sat shaking her head at one of the many datapads on the table. Solo sat with her, silently referring to yet another datapad. Chewbacca glared at the main terminal, his giant fury fingers flying across the keys with amazing accuracy. 

Skywalker sat on the repulsor couch with his feet propped up on a piece of Kess' equipment and his lap full of datapads completely engrossed in something else.

She had two choices. Since she didn't want to get involved with the discussion at the table, Kess picked the couch. She leaned her back against the armrest and propped the datapad on her knees. Skywalker hadn't even looked up, so Kess simply ignored him ignoring her and she began to draft another letter.

**Hey Girlies!**

**The latest update is. . . nothing's happening. Captain Solo's starting to loosen up but I think it's only because his wife is brow beating him into it. The Counselor taught me a few things on treaty protocol. I get to play spy for the next few months. I'm supposed to address them all as private citizens. So I guess you could say I'm on a first name basis with Luke, Leia, and Han. (Nanny nanny.) I even received a fake Imperial ID card with an assumed name. I'll have to keep it in case they ever do call the authorities on us at the Mash Pit. The down side is that we're on comm silence for the duration so I won't be able to hear how things are going back there.**

Kess paused and blinked. She reread her last line, sighed, and finished typing out her thought anyway.

**it also means that I can't send you any letters either.**

Luke felt her disappointment tang against the Force and simply crossed his ankles in response. 

"Excuse me, sir. Do you have anything good to read?"

Luke's concentration burst like a bubble. His eyes slowly moved to find her brown eyes looking back at him. He put down the datapad patiently, "Like what?"

Kess shrugged, "Anything that doesn't have to do with ship repair or politics." She pulled the card out of the datapad and dropped it on the cushion between them, "I just realized I can't send out any letters."

He looked at her datacard and a corner of his mouth curled, "Have you been writing letters this whole time?" 

Her cheeks flushed momentarily. 

Luke lowered his gaze to his lap and picked up a datacard. His grin grew wider when he checked the label, but went serious again when he tossed it into her lap. "Stop calling me 'sir'," he ordered and returned to his reading.

Kess picked up the datacard with a smirk. The Alliance Day Saver was trying too hard to be firm and emotionless. "It's kind of hard not to with you walking around with such a mean look on your face, _Luke_." She leaned back and plugged in the datacard. "You're starting to remind me of my father."

Luke's eyebrows rose and his datapad descended. "Shall I take that as a compliment?" He fought a smile when his eyes met hers again, "or should I just kill you right here on the spot?"

Kess pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.

Luke snicked softly, "You started it."

Kess shifted in her seat. 

His chuckle died to a proud grin. "Three, one." He tried once more to return to his reading. He had completely forgotten what precisely he was looking for in this record. He hadn't even completed a sentence when her voice pulled his attention again.

"Can I ask you another question about the Jedi?" she cautiously worded. 

Luke sighed deeply and draped his arm over the back of the couch. His half turn clearly gave her his attention and clearly for one question only.

"Where was the Academy?" she said quickly.

He didn't blink, "Why?"

The gears started turning in Kess' head until she remembered she couldn't lie to him. She sighed, rolling her eyes back in her head.

Luke frowned and pointed at the datapad in her hand. "Read." He returned his focus on his letter, disappointed that, again, she wouldn't admit her connection with the Jedi. He felt solace in the fact that every question she asked clued him in further to that connection.

Kess swallowed hard. She knew that he would start denying questions at some point but she hoped it wouldn't be so soon. Sighing away the disappointment of it, she raised the datapad to read. . . .

**The Jedi History**

Kess straightened in her seat and looked at him in pleasant surprise.

Luke didn't look back at her. "It's not ship repair and it's not politics," he admitted. ". . .and it talks about the Jedi Academy on the Adegan System in section twelve."

Kess switched to the first page. "Thus 'Adegan Crystals'," she grinned.

"Precisely." His eyes no longer moved from his datapad.

Kess scratched one fingernail on her temple and smiled shyly, "Thank you."

"Your welcome."

She watched him read for a moment and smiled wider. She was sitting on a couch next to Luke Skywalker, and to top it off, he was being nice to her. The first time she saw him on the vid, he looked so young. Either the camera had fooled her, or the Alliance really had taken a toll on the farm boy. His baby face was gone, his sandy hair was longer in the back, and his jaw was squarer. Muscles moved in his cheek as he sub-consciously swallowed. He pulled a big arm from the back of the couch and moved the datapad from one hand to another. A few moments later, sky blue eyes looked at her.

Kess suddenly noticed she had been staring, and blinked.

"Read," he repeated.

She saw just enough of a smile in his eyes to ease her embarrassment. His eyes returned to his datapad and she forced herself the read her own.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Leia was buttoning up a nightshirt in the starboard side passageway when Han strutted up with his hands on his hips. "We'll make the window by 42 minutes," he assured her.

Leia dropped her arms from her shirt and sighed. "I don't know. I've got a bad feeling about this." She slid into the enlarged bunk and propped her head on her fist. 

The worried expression didn't make Han feel any better. He began to pull off his black vest. "Now aren't you glad I came along? If this is a trap-"

"If this is a trap, we're still in big trouble. You being here barely improves our chance of getting out." She rubbed her eyes with thumb and forefinger. "And if it isn't a trap, then you can get this ship in reliable condition while Luke and I haggle."

He began to unbutton the white shirt. "Well, I'm not sure how much haggling and repairs you and I are going to accomplish with Luke so busy flirting with Lendra."

Leia smiled. "Pretend you haven't noticed, all right?"

He shrugged uncomfortably, "There's just something about her."

"She's a good engineer-"

"She's probably a good engineer," he admitted quietly. "She's used to being locked away in a pad on the Rebel bases. How do we know she can put on a show for the Imperials for four months of treaty haggling?"

"Admiral Drayson wouldn't have given you an engineer who couldn't perform. He knows what we're up against." She watched him finish dressing into nightclothes in the starboard hall. "Besides, Luke will make sure she doesn't blow our cover."

Han stopped. His forehead wrinkled. "How?"

Leia grinned, "He thinks she might be Force sensitive."

He winced violently, "What?" He could just see the girl running to Luke every time he butted heads with her. If she was Force sensitive, did that mean that Leia's training would be delayed even further? Han lay down in the bunk beside his wife, wishing desperately they could take a vacation alone together.

Leia patted his shoulder and rolled onto her back. "Don't worry. At least he has someone to talk to while we're busy arguing."

Han grinned at the ceiling of the bunk and took her hand under the blanket. Leia squeezed gently with one hand, and turned off the bunk light with the other.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

The deep hum of hyperspace and power drifted through the dimmed passageways and main cargo bay of the Millennium Falcon. In the last night of the trip, Luke had been asleep in his bunk for hours, dreaming about nothing significant.

Then somebody screamed.

Luke eyes flew open in crisp awareness but no other part of his body even twitched. The darkened ship droned on through the stars, but there was no other sound. His eyes looked up and down the port side hall as far as he could see and found no movement. His senses reported everyone was still in bed, the droids were shut down, and Chewie was playing cards on the bridge as though he hadn't heard a thing. Nothing was out of place. He wondered if he had dreamt it.

The blood-curdling scream came again. It was a woman's voice in desperate plea fading off to a beaten whimper. _NNOOoooooo_! But Luke's ears hadn't processed the sound; the scream came through the Force. He immediately touched Leia's mind as he sat up, only to find her blinking awake in confusion with Han lying next to her. Process of elimination only took a millisecond and Luke quietly climbed out of bed. 

Leia quickly came to the same conclusion. She tiptoed to the port hall with a white cloak wrapped around her shoulders. "Is that her?" she whispered as she met him in the dimly lit passageway.

They arrived at her bunk to find the Lieutenant sleeping quietly. Her mouth didn't move, her body didn't twitch, but her voice rang out clearly on the Force. _It can't be! Nooo!_ The screams had turned into pleading cries. He could already hear her crying, he didn't need to feel her pain as well. Luke shut off his ability to sense her emotions. Leia winced. 

"Go back to bed, Leia." Luke told her, "I'll take care of this." Luke knew he could protect himself against Kess' accidental Force use better than Leia could. He noted on a mental list to talk to Leia about practicing her blocking techniques even if her training was on hold. "Go," he whispered.

Leia looked at her brother for a moment, but trusting his judgment, she turned and tip toed away. 

Luke carefully sat down beside Kess on her bed. Kess stirred, pulling the charcoal colored blanket over her arm. Her hair was sprayed across her face and shoulder. Luke waited for her to settle again before he carefully sounded out the words. "Wake up, Kess."

Kess didn't move.

He leaned in and in one swift movement, brushed an index finger across her neck to pull away the hair from her face. He said a little louder, "Lendra, wake up."

She still didn't move. Her voice came through the Force in corrosive pain, "_Not the whole planet! How can they blow up a whole planet?!"_

Memories always made the worst nightmares. Luke inhaled and straightened his shoulders. It took no effort to send his voice out on the Force and out of his mouth in unison. Using his practiced Commander's voice in both dimensions, he ordered, "Kesselia! Wake up!"

She sat up in a hurry and bonked her head on the ceiling of the bunk. The pain jerked her awake and blinked away the nightmare. _It was just a dream._ Her face relaxed only a little when reality drifted into her mind. _It was a long time ago. It was just a dream._ But reality had Skywalker sitting on her bed, the voice that woke her up. Never before had she awoken another person due to a nightmare. Luke looked at her as if he was about to scold her for something.

Kess sat up slowly and pulled her hair over her shoulder in a bunch. "Did I wake you up?" 

"Are you all right?" he asked politely.

Kess nodded, "It was just a dream. I usually don't scream out loud. I'm sorry."

Luke smiled at the irony. She was using the Force and didn't even know it. "You weren't screaming out loud." He moved to stand up, "If you had, Chewie would have gotten here first."

She stretched out her legs after he stood. "Then how-?" she stopped herself. He probably wouldn't admit to any of his tricks, and right now she really didn't want to know.

Luke smiled at her as he met her eyes in the darkness, "Call it a sixth sense." With that, he walked away to his own bunk.

Kess watched him go before she lay back down. It took her a minute to put the pieces together and realize she had been using the Force. It wasn't the first time she had screamed in a dream. She wondered if she had been screaming into the Force all along. She wondered what else had she done with the Force without knowing it. Luke probably knew it from the start and had been trying to get her to admit it the entire time. She remembered the first time she saw his eyes.

'_If you were unarmed you wouldn't have lasted that long.'_

It was confirmed. Kess was Force sensitive, and Luke Skywalker knew it. She could imagine the battery of questions she was going to get in the morning. Was he going to ask to train her? Was he going to ask about her ancestry? Did he already know about her grandfather? Kess' curiosity about the Force got her in this predicament. Her father would have her hide and serve it on a platter for Victory Dinner.

Luke pulled the blanket over his shoulder feeling the conflict that was going on ten feet away. Part of his mind began to calculate ways to get to the bottom of that conflict, but another part of his mind was bursting with glee. Kess was trainable, she had the gumption to get through it, she was already in the service of the Alliance, and when she was done, there would be another Jedi in the galaxy besides him.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Luke flipped the switch on the stove and leaned his back against the pantry door as he waited for it to heat up. With a white handled spatula in one hand, he folded his arms and bowed his head in thought. He had to get to the bottom of the conflict somehow. He had to know what gave her such mixed feelings for the Jedi. _'They blew up the whole planet.'_ She was dreaming about Alderaan.

"You awake?" came Leia's husky voice. Her chestnut hair was wrapped in figure-eight bun behind her ears and she was already dressed for the Frakkan landing in a shimmering red gown. Warm eyes peeked at him as she poured a hot mug of tea. "What happened last night?" She leaned against the opposite counter and gingerly took her first sip.

Luke shrugged and took one step to the stove, "Nothing you don't already know. It seems out Repair Engineer is Force sensitive and is reluctant to admit it." He began peeling apart the strips of red meat and laying them onto the fryer. "Apparently, she had no idea she was using it."

Leia rose a hand in the air, "How could she not know?"

Luke looked at her again, "It's easy." He paused, and returned to the task of cooking. "She's probably been doing it all along and no one has been around to hear it until now." 

Leia squinted, "Is she a descendant?" She went silent when she heard the woman's footfalls.

Lendra stopped mid-stride when she heard the question. Before she could process a response, Luke looked up, "I don't know. Are you?" 

Kess froze in the stare. She inhaled to speak, but only gulped. 

Luke frowned and returned his gaze to the sizzling meat. "Yesterday you told me you weren't."

Kess set her chin and recited the explanation, "My grandfather never made knighthood. He died at the academy." She passed Leia to quickly pour her own mug. "And that's simply a rumor to begin with," she said flatly.

Leia spoke softly, trying not to sound offensive, "Why didn't you mention this before?"

"I didn't feel it was relevant." Kess looked at the Princess briefly before moving out of the tiny kitchen.

Luke's tone dropped, "How relevant was that nightmare?"

"My nightmares are irrelevant," she said quickly and walked to the table.

"Until someone hears you," he warned. 

Leia stepped backward away from the kitchen and let the argument go on without her interference.

Kess shook her head impatiently, "What's that supposed to mean? So I wake you up? What are you gonna do to me?"

Luke ignored the attitude in her voice and spoke from the stove, "I won't do anything, but I'm not the only one in this galaxy that's Force sensitive. Leia heard it too. Who knows who else will hear it on Frakkan, or Yavin 4, or Tatooine."

"Okay, so what if I wake a dozen people up? What's your point?"

He stepped out of the kitchen and patiently explained piece by piece, pointing at her with the spatula as he spoke, "Nightmares are comprised of dark emotions. That's what makes them nightmares instead of dreams. When you call out in the Force because of a nightmare, you are using the _dark side_ of the Force." Punctuating his sentence with a jerk of his chin, he again returned to the kitchen. "If any Sith hear you, they will undoubtedly come to your aid to complete your training to the dark side."

Kess mockingly dropped her jaw, "Who? ME? Sorry, Commander, I don't have such delusions of grandeur." She let out a nervous chuckle and let her voice die, "I'm gonna be a Repair Manager when I grow up, not Darth Vader." 

He immediately felt the hate when she hissed Vader's name. Luke watched her pick up a datapad and stare at its face without reading a word. Fear poured out of her heart. He could almost feel her throat quivering.

Leia realized she was watching the conversation unfold from the side of the room. Since it wasn't a private conversation, she didn't move to leave. Besides, Leia was overly curious why Luke was pushing the conversation so hard to get Lendra wound up like that. She could read a tense intent hidden in his words, and Lendra was getting more and more frightened every time he spoke. Leia stepped up beside him, taking the spatula from his hand.

Luke blinked at the motherly eyes, and carefully stepped to the table. He rubbed sweaty palms on the brown fabric of his slacks, wincing at his options. "Let's not bring Vader into this, all right?"

Leia glanced at him, and continued to cook breakfast.

Luke licked his lips, "I wanted to be sure you were aware that what you were doing could have adverse effects."

Kess rubbed her forehead, "If it weren't for him I wouldn't have had those nightmares." Her hand dropped as she mumbled, "And if it weren't for you they wouldn't have come back."

He dropped his composure, folding his arms at his chest. "What did _I_ do?"

Kess sighed deeply and closed her eyes, "It's my problem, okay? Never mind. It's a. . . it's a long story." She got up and rushed passed him to escape the interrogation.

Luke put his hands on his hips, "Then summarize it!" 

She stopped, turned, and pointed a finger at him-

The ship shuddered violently. Kess and Luke both bent their knees to keep balanced. Leia grabbed a hold of the wall. 

Kess' attention went directly to the sounds of the Falcon. She heard the hyperdrive winding down and Chewie growl loudly in frustration from the bridge. Kess had higher priorities than the Jedi and his Force. She dashed to the bridge, whistling at Artoo to wake up on her way.

The Wookiee was climbing out of his copilots seat when she burst in the door. He howled a multi-octave sentence at her as he dug his furry hands into an open panel on the navcomputer.

Before Artoo had a chance to catch up and translate, the Captain frantically pushed her aside, "But I just replaced the damn thing!"

Artoo caught up and began whistling Chewie's translation for Kess. Luke and Leia were right behind the droid with worried expressions. Solo checked gauges and flipped switches above him on the console. Chewbacca was on the floor with his arms in the lower panel. 

"What about the lockpern?" Han yelled at his partner below him.

"Lockperns don't bring down a hyperdrive in action, Captain." Kess warned, feeling Skywalker slide passed her into the bridge. She crossed her arms to motion that she wasn't going to help without expressed instruction.

Han turned to her offensively, "The lockperns have been acting up lately."

The ship trembled as it slowed and came to a complete stop in the middle of space. All eyes went to the window where the streaks turned into immobile stars. They were stuck in the middle of nowhere, and were going to miss the 'three hour window' if they didn't get back into hyperspace soon. 

Kess looked at Solo evenly as she spoke, "First Officer Chewbacca? Did you give a manual command to the hyperdrive just now?"

Chewie growled at her as he stood, but Solo didn't wait for him to finish, "You think it's the power couplings."

Kess nodded, "It couldn't be the lockperns. I didn't hear the relay blow. I would have heard it on a ship this small." 

Han stepped away from the console, hissing at Lendra, "When was the last time you were _on_ a ship this small?" His fingers raced over switches in the cockpit before he sat down. "We're 15.56 minutes from the Frakkan system. I'm gonna push it through real-space until we get the hyperdrive up again. Lieutenant, get up here and man the scopes."

Chewbacca stuck out his chest at his full eight-foot-three height and growled in revolt.

"Chewie, get moving! We don't have time for this." 

Artoo rolled out the door behind the complaining Wookiee. Luke leaned his shoulder on the wall of the bridge and met Leia's glance. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

Lendra slowly sat in the copilot's chair keeping her hands hovering over the console. This was not her place. Her eyes saw the amber digital display counting backwards. 11.02. "What that?" 

Leia leaned in over her husband's chair, "That's what's left of our three hour window."

Luke leaned an arm on the other passenger chair. "Han, we don't have time."

_11.02 minutes minus 15.56 minutes equals 4.54 minutes _**_late_**. Kess dropped her arms, "Let me into your opto-electrics, Skipper."

Han pulled on the stick. "No." 

The ship heaved to port and stars moved slowly to the right. The complete shadow of a planet came looming into view of the window, but they were still a good distance away. "Chewie and I can handle it. We'll let you know if you were right." Solo glanced at Lendra between quick movements of flying the ship. She was staring out the window at the planets outline. "Get your eyes on those scopes! Even if we don't miss the window, they could come out of hyperspace any minute!"

Her voice frayed as her patience was thinning, "_What am I looking for?!_" 

Chewie growled from the cargo bay, Han stood up in response. "Luke, take this." In a swift choreographed movement, Luke slid into the pilot's seat and took the stick as Han slid out. Leia followed the frustrated Captain out the door. 

Blue eyes darted across the gauges, "Y'know what a Star Destroyer looks like?"

Kess adjusted her seat, "Seen pictures."

Luke gritted a tight smile, "_That's_ what your looking for." 

Flowing red skirts whipped against the tattered padded walls of the Falcon, "Han, you said-"

Solo ripped open a floor panel and hopped down into it, "Leia, she's been giving me nothing but attitude since she got on board." His body lowered completely into the floor. Chewie trotted out from the back of the ship complaining with an armload of hand tools. He dropped them to clatter loudly on metal floor panels and lay down on his belly to reach into the open hole with one of them.

"But she just might know what she's talking about!" Leia yelled down, "Let me go man the scopes and send her back here to help you?"

Han's face appeared from the floor, "Look, I can argue with her, or I can argue with you, or Chewie and I can fix the Falcon. Pick one!" He met her eyes long enough for her to get his point, sense his seriousness, and then disappeared down the hole again.

Leia huffed and backed away. She gritted her teeth until she saw the smoke billowing from burning breakfast and decided to put herself to use by putting it out.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Luke scanned the gauges and realized that there wasn't much to do at this point besides fly as fast as possible toward the shadowy planet. Kess stared at the set of scopes from Chewie's seat. Her clenched jaw was as stiff as her eyes.

"Kess, I'm the last Jedi Knight. . .." he kept his eyes on the planet.

Her eyes twitched, _Here comes the speech._

"I'm accustomed to people hating me," he continued in cold but soft voice. "I'm accustomed to people being frightened of me, but I am also accustomed to knowing why." He glanced at her to see if she was going to budge but her eyes remained fixed on the scopes. "You get offensive every time the Force comes up in the conversation. It's not a fear of the unknown, because you know a lot more than most, and it's not an Imperial kind of hate. . .. You get angry at me and you get scared of me in unnatural proportions, and I simply want to know why."

Kess gritted her teeth, "Why don't you just try to read my mind?"

He tightened the seal around his emotions so that he couldn't feel hers. He could hear the hate in her voice just fine. His forehead wrinkled, "Because I don't want to."

His tone snapped at her. She looked at him and saw the frustration, she looked at the growing planet and then she looked at the empty scopes. "My grandfather left my grandmother with two kids and little money so he could attend the Jedi Academy. . .. They never heard from him again. They just heard that Vader also went to the Academy and slaughtered every possibility of a Jedi in existence."

Luke relaxed at the explanation: she wasn't hating him, she was hating Vader. Mixed between victory, sympathy, and guilt, he said a quiet, "I'm sorry."

"And I'm scared because if my father knew I really was Force sensitive and was sitting here having this conversation with you, he would lose his mind." The slice of day smiled from the bottom of the planet as the Falcon sped a few degrees off center. The systems sun brightened their faces as morning unfolded on the planet below.

"I can understand that," he mumbled, adjusting the heading of the ship a little. The planet slowly outgrew the window. He aimed the Falcon towards the darkened part of Frakkan. The morning faded away as they rounded deeper into the night. "I'll make you a little proposition, Kess. You're in danger using the Force accidentally like that. Let me at least train you how to _not_ use it, and I won't pressure you on the rest."

Her interest piqued, "What do you mean?"

Luke grinned, "You're a walking beacon for any Force user who happened to be passing by, which means you are not only endangering yourself, but also me, everyone on board, and this mission. You have to stop. Now. If you let me train you that much, I won't ask you to train the rest of the way."

Her voice raised another octave, "What do you mean, the rest of the way?" 

Luke grinned wider. She wanted to be a Jedi badly, and he knew it. "You know what I mean." The planet completely covered the window. The stars were all but gone and it was too dark to see any surface features on the planet. Luke's twinkling eye stared at Kess for a response.

Kess stared back, astounded and unbelieving. "You can't be serious."

His grin vanished and his eyes went to the window. "Check the scopes."

The black scope now had two red dots. She sat up straight in the chair. Her eyes moved to the IFF screen and found the technical readouts of a Star Destroyer, "Two Star Destroyers at 78.22."

Luke's voice was suddenly calm, "What vector?"

"Uh, 286 by 192 and--" Her voice quivered as it got louder, "I just lost them behind the planet."

Luke pulled up further, deeper into the nightfall, "That means they just lost us too. Relax." 

Kess scoured the scopes. A variety of blue dots appeared showing the location of unmanned satellites and then four gold dots which were either their escort or their next dilemma. "Four fighters approaching at 23.67," Kess announced.

He reached to the well-worn gray button, "Han, we're here. Fix it later."

In seconds, the door opened and the choreographed switch happened again as the Captain took the stick. The Star Destroyers were reported to Solo and his First Officer, who took the information almost as calmly as Luke did. Kess was rudely ordered out of her chair. Her last view of the scope was the IFF screen identifying the Frakkan ships as TIE fighters. Her heart skipped a beat and she backed up to the door of the bridge.

A crackling voice came out of the comm speaker, "Unidentified ship, state your name, destination and cargo."

Han didn't look back, "It's for you, sweetheart." 

The Counselor leaned in between the Captain and the Wookiee, "This is the Crawler Loop, Sultani Space Port, passengers only. Transmitting authorization code." She typed with a single hand and pushed a separate button with her thumb. A silence fell on the comm channel. The bridge remained quiet waiting to see if the code would work. 

Kess felt a hand on her shoulder and almost jumped. Luke's eyes twinkled. He motioned her to the chair behind Chewie, "We know what we're doing." She lowered into the seat, amazed by Skywalker's easy smile. When he looked back out at the approaching TIE fighters, his grin faded but he remained as calm as before. 

As the seconds counted on, Leia backed up and sat in the other passenger seat. Luke peered over Chewie to the gauges, "Old 4250 TIE fighters?" 

Chewie checked the IFF screen and grunted an affirmative. Kess watched the ships get larger with only Frakkan's nighttime in the backdrop. 

The comm speaker crackled again. "Crawler Loop, you are cleared for approach on escort only."

Leia leaned forward again, "Thank you, Frakkan Control," and sat back down. "The Empire probably hasn't given them any fresh leftovers since the Battle of Endor. We took out too many ships." 

The TIE fighters were now close enough to clearly identify the blue green symbol painted across the flat solar panels, marking them as Frakkan ships, not Imperials. Kess watched in awe as the Falcon fell into escort formation and fly straight to the ground. 

"Well," Luke broke the silence, "I guess I'd better go change."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The spewing of the mooring lines could be heard from inside the cargo bay. Kess held onto the wall and to Threepio for the sudden jerk when the Falcon hit the ground, then let go to finish attaching the restraining bolt in a rush.

"What? We're here?" said Threepio in a delighted whine. "Oh, I do much prefer space travel in hibernation." 

Kess tossed a hand tool into her bag, "I don't blame you. I would have rather-"

"Not one 'sir' outta you!" Solo shook a finger at Kess. The parade came out of the bridge in a hustle. "You'll blow our cover." 

Kess nodded, "Aye, sir."

Han stopped and gave her an evil eye.

"I was just kidding!" Kess threw her hands up as she stepped aside, "Geez."

"Han, come here," Leia ordered after inspecting her own clothes. She checked the white shirt for spots and the black vest for lint. Luke came out of the port side hall in the famous black Jedi uniform. "Luke." She motioned for him to step over as well. 

Leia's quick check of their appearances was finalized with a satisfied nod. She quickly turned to Threepio and Artoo to repeat the process. Kess serviced both droids on the trip so she was confident that Leia would be satisfied with their appearance as well. Leia then ordered Kess to stand at attention and inspected the fresh pressed coveralls. 

Luke adjusted his cuff with a grin. "She treats us like children," he grinned quietly to Kess. 

Chewie hooted something and walked down the starboard hall to the ramp. One by one the crowd followed. They seemed to automatically fall in a marching order. Kess was pulled to walk next to Chewie and one step in front the droids. She watched the whole scene unfold from behind the straightened shoulders of a Jedi uniform.

The ramp lowered onto dusty cement, lit only by bright bluish fluorescent. Fresh air rushed into the ship with a cool salty breeze. Leia's dress fluttered behind her and she stepped down onto the planet's surface. The parade silently followed to the rustic docking pad. The Falcon's pressure releases were still steaming from landing. The massive bay doors were slowly covering a starlit sky. The sound of stone grinding on stone echoed through the bay until night was completely blocked out with a shuddering crunch. 

A lone woman in a crisp gray uniform and a red-haired halo stood emotionlessly at the edge of the docking bay. She marched directly to Leia and stopped a meter away to bow penitently. "I am Ambassador Shuley," she said in richly accented Basic. "It is a pleasure to have you visit us here on Frakkan."

Leia bowed back. "I am Counselor Leia Organa Solo. This is Commander Skywalker, Jedi Knight. Captain Solo, First Officer Chewbacca, and Lieutenant Lendra of the Millennium Falcon." 

Each person bowed their head slightly as their name was called. Kess followed along wondering what _this_ scene looked like on the vid. 

Leia continued, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Ambassador Shuley stepped aside and waved her hand in a mechanical wave to the door, "May I escort you to your suite?"

Leia nodded proudly and walked with the woman. The group fell out of formation when they got to the door, but continued the stroll in a faint replica of it when they made it outside. Chewie growled softly to the droids during the shuffle and, without a word, both droids turned around and went back to the ship. 

Shuley didn't notice the droids' change of direction. "Governor Levilot regrets he cannot meet you in person. He is attending to our new arrivals at our system's capital. He extends his welcome to you and invites your party to breakfast at eight this morning."

Leia nodded again, "We'd be delighted."

Stars blanketed the sky where it peaked through towering buildings. They were on the ground floor with sculptured landscaping and other vegetation growing on the side of the walkway. The tall, thin buildings were well kept. Glassy surfaces glowed in geometric designs from the windows. The Ambassador led them straight across the empty street to the nearest building, a fine hotel.

There was no bellboy and no desk clerk, not a soul to greet them besides the Ambassador. Kess wasn't the only one that noticed, but when Leia politely asked, Shuley responded in a quick, rehearsed answer. She explained that they had arrived during Sultani's early morning, "Less people will be alerted to your arrival this way." With that, she led them directly to the elevator without any tour of the facilities, and pressed a button.

"The city of Sultani is primarily a vacation spot for the Frakkan people. We would like to offer you the comforts of vacation in return for coming to see us during your busy schedule." The elevator pulled them skyward with more G forces than expected. The lights counted up unrecognizable numbers until the large car stopped and the reflecting doors slid open. 

The Ambassador had taken them to a tremendous suite. The elevator opened up in the back center of the room, obviously positioned for first impressions. The wall directly ahead was comprised completely of glass showing a beautiful view of the starry night. The front room was in the shape of an eye, with a sunken sitting area at its pupil. The lush carpet and cushiony furniture were decorated in muted mauves, plums, and patterns of thick violet.

"There are four separate rooms behind you. I can provide further rooms or other space at your request." The woman's flowery accent and practiced phrases didn't warm the tone in her voice. Like a tour guide bored with her job, she waved a mechanical hand to the different amenities of the room. "The communications desk is there. You have public access to news, net, and libraries, also a direct line to my address and the Governor's address. However, we regretfully must amend your access to other addresses to ensure confidentiality on this mission."

Leia spoke calmly as she stepped into the sitting area, "Will we be permitted comm access at anytime during our stay? I would like to keep Mon Mothma posted on our progress."

Ambassador Shuley nodded, "The Governor will be providing a regulated channel for coded messages. He also has an assumed address for the Alliance to send messages to you." She turned to the kitchen, concluding the comm silence discussion. "A service droid has been provided. The activation control is here. You may use the rest of the early morning to freshen up from your trip." She marched back to the elevator and came back to attention. "I shall return to escort you to breakfast as seven fifty."

Leia nodded from deeper in the room. "I'm looking forward to it."

The Ambassador nodded, turned, and stepped to the elevator. "Is there anything else I may do for you before I take my leave?"

Luke started, but Leia spoke first, "Thank you, Ambassador, you have been most kind." 

With that, the doors closed and took the icy Ambassador away.

Han dropped into an amethyst chair and lay his head back on the comfortable headrest. "Whew, she's about as warm as a snake." He enjoyed the vacation part of it already.

Leia turned to Luke, "What were you going to ask her?"

His eyebrow rose, "I was wondering if we were allowed to go _outside_."       

"What for?"

Kess stepped away, browsing at the decor with her hands clasped behind her back. _This_ was the environment she expected to find the political party, yet she could relax with the rest of the gang. She peered into one of the bedrooms, afraid to touch anything.

Luke leaned against the back of a chair that met his elbows perfectly. "I have a few exercises to teach before a member of our team goes back to sleep."

Kess faced the sitting area to find all eyes on her. "I wasn't planning on taking a nap. We just got up."

His eyes were intent on this, "Better start now that later."

Kess laughed nervously, "But, Com-. Luke, . . . this isn't. . . um." She swallowed hard and thanked the Maker when the elevator door opened. Threepio and Artoo were loaded down with a variety of bags. Kess saw the distraction and fed it, immediately going to them to help. Near the kitchen was an oval dining table with only a small vase of tiny white flowers. As per Kess' muttered instruction, the droids followed her to the table and began to set all the bags carefully down on the tabletop. 

Leia joined them, picking through the mound and taking only a few things out. She started off with a set of orders to Threepio on what to do with it all, including specifying whose room was whose. "Luke," she said in between orders to Threepio, "why don't you make up a breakfast snack or something. I'm starving and I don't think I can hold out 'til eight."

Luke eyed Kess, visibly aware that she got away from the conversation successfully, and strolled into the tiny kitchen. His eyes peeled off her as he passed the table. "Sure."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Shuley's porcelain stiff face had not cracked during the short ride to the suite several levels beneath her visitors. As soon as the elevator doors slid open, she marched to the comm desk and snapped her fingers, "B-Nine, link up with the hotel's door and elevator monitors. Report to me at once if any of the Alliance party leaves their suite. I want a complete report on who comes and goes, time of departure or arrival, and location. Consider that your number one priority while the Alliance party is here." The Ambassador was tapping at the keys without leaning against the back of the chair. 

B9 came shuffling out of his storage closet with the _whhiirrr-click, whhiirrr-click_ of his footsteps. The frame of the five-foot tall droid was made of a brushed nickel alloy. Its perfectly round eyes lit up with purple LEDs and its mouth was a smiling grating of highly polished silver. "Yes, Ambassador," he spoke with Shuley's same accent in a happy metallic voice. His forearm folded completely in on itself to leave a metal bone jutting from his elbow. It was with this bone he plugged into the wall and began spinning the link. "Two members of the Alliance party have arrived at the suite, Ambassador."

Shuley looked up. "Who?"

With a smile plastered across his brightly polished face, he reported further, "Two androids arrived at zero two five eight." 

Shuley stared at the wall as the report came across her ears. "Where were they?" 

"There is no record."

She stood and went to the window, looking thoughtfully out the window to the starry night, black ocean, and a few feet of path lit beach. Her eyes shut. _I forgot their bags._ She sighed and straightened her shoulders even more. Knowing the Alliance, it probably wasn't a bad mistake, but she had no room for any. Not any more. She would get this treaty and that Usak for her system no matter the cost. 

B9 turned his head 120 degrees at his neck to face her at the window. "The identifications of the Alliance party have not yet been received by the monitor. Please submit this information now."

Folding her hands patiently behind her back, she stared out to the sky and described the Alliance party. "Identify them by their sex and hair colour. Counselor Organa Solo is the human female with brown hair. Captain Solo is the human male with brown hair. Jedi Skywalker is the human male with blonde hair. Lieutenant Lendra is the human female with blonde hair. Chewbacca is the Wookiee. Identify the droids as their models numbers." Shuley stepped away from the window, "Wake me at zero seven."

"Yes, Ambassador." The silver smile returned to its default position at zero degrees and stood comfortably with its elbow bone attached to the hotel wall.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Eight feet, three inches tall, Chewbacca looked up and down the seven-foot-long bed and grunted indignantly. The room was sufficient for everything else, his few belongings fit on top of the dresser without even crowding it, but the bed was a foot and a half too short. He looked around the room, not finding a workable solution and walked out the open door to the living room.

Artoo whistled from one of the bedrooms on the other side of the elevator. Threepio responded, "I quite agree. After living with them for days on the trip, I would much prefer having separate quarters from Chewbacca."

Chewie ignored them and scanned the sitting area for its useful furniture. He spied a lavender piece about the same height as his bed and long enough to make a difference in his sleeping situation. It was a footrest underneath a pair of scuffed black boots. He growled again.

Solo looked up, looked down, and lifted his feet. Chewie took the piece of furniture, lifted it to his chest without effort, and took it into his room just right of the elevator.

Leia came out of the room next door, her bright red dress flowing through the violet hues of the decor like a bright fish in a purple ocean. "Threepio, did you get the bag of datapads from my bunk?"

Threepio stepped out of the other bedroom, "Yes, your highness. I shall retreive it for you." He shuffled to the dining table and picked up one of many small bags there. He turned to take it to her, but she had already met him at the table.

"What else is here?" She asked herself as she reviewed what was left of the table's mixed contents.

Luke stepped out of the kitchen with a plate of hot berry muffins and buttery spread, "Breakfast is served." Setting the plate down on the now half empty table, he took a muffin in one hand and his charcoal bag in the other. "Which room is mine?"

Leia looked up, "That one." she pointed to the room just left of the elevator and reached for a muffin. "Smells good."

Artoo rolled out of his room as he entered it. Relishing the thought of privacy for a few minutes, even from the droids, he hit the door control with his elbow before putting his bag down.    

On the left was a single door and simple comm desk. The far wall was occupied with a doublewide bed, and built into the right wall was a closet complex, the latter of which he approached immediately and slid open one of the stand up cupboards. Not planning to unpack now, he set down the charcoal bag on the shelf and left the white door open to remind himself to do it later. 

Luke turned to the lavender colors of the room and set a hand on his hip. These pale mauves weren't exactly his favorite color. He shrugged and bit at the muffin in his hand. Most of the time he would be in the bedroom, his eyes were going to be reading datapads or closed for sleeping anyway. 

The comm terminal was set to screen saver mode and advertising the food prices and gambling odds at the hotel casino. Luke watched the bright colors flash across the screen for a second and then walked around the bed to turn it off, but he stopped in front of the bathroom door. Taking another thoughtless bite of the muffin, he pressed the button and the door slid aside. The first thing he saw… was another door.

Luke strained a grin over the bite. Stepping onto the bright white tile, he leaned a shoulder against the other doorframe and knocked twice. He could sense her attention and her confusion. He knocked again.

The door slid aside. Kess' room was the mirror image of his own. Confused brown eyes rolled back in impatience as soon as she saw his smile.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily." He studied the muffin for another bite. "I'm starting to think that you planned for the ship to break down and those Star Destroyers to come out of hyperspace just so you wouldn't have to finish this conversation."

Kess crossed her arms and leaned against the other side of the doorway, "Look, you've been beating around the bush about this for days. What precisely is it you want me to tell you?"

He looked straight at her. "I want you to tell me about your connection with the Jedi."

She clenched her teeth, "Why?"

Luke grinned at her and shrugged, "It's kind of a hobby?"

Kess dropped her arms and her gaze. This didn't sound like it was going to be a short conversation, so she resumed her task of unpacking the contents from her military issue bag. "I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

Luke watched her. "I'm only insisting that you learn how to _not_ use the Force."

Her voice came out frustrated, "What difference does it make!"

"I like you, Kess," he said lightly, "I don't want to have to kill you later."     

She went to the opposite side of the bed and placed a short stack of coveralls in the open cupboard. "Just because I screamed in a dream doesn't mean that I have fantastic powers or magical. . ." her hand waved in the air at a loss of words. "I am a Repair Engineer, I have no use for religion or sorcery."

Luke took another bite from his muffin, "'Sorcery' is what the Imperial's call it, you know… Tell me again why you want learn to use a lightsaber?"

Her eyes shot up to his, offended.

Luke only grinned, "You keep contradicting yourself, Kesselia. You're torn between two duties and I can understand that. I can relate to that. If you don't want to let me in on the big conflict, that's your prerogative… But don't stand there and try to convince me why you shouldn't train to be a Jedi Knight."

She turned slowly and stared evilly at him, "How did you know my name was Kesselia?"

Luke stopped chewing and pulled his shoulder away from the wall. "I looked at your security check results this morning," he said quickly and sat down in the comm desk chair. "If you prefer, I will call you Kess."

She rolled that around into her head, only half believing him. She paused from folding civilian clothes, "What's your real name?"

Luke put the last bite of muffin in his mouth and smiled deviously until he swallowed it. "If I tell you my real name, will you tell me about that conflict?"

She searched his expression, "Sure."

He stood up. "My real name," he went to the end of the bed to whisper the secret and looked both ways as if checking for eavesdroppers, ". . .is Luke Skywalker."

With all the theatrics of the 'secret', she already knew what he was going to say by the time he said it. She caught the blue twinkle of how proud he was of himself just before he sat down on the bed, visibly making himself comfortable for the explanation he had just earned.

Kess laughed at the boyish pride. "All right, you win." Straightening the last stack of clothes, she summarized it in her head and went to open one of the drawers. "The big conflict is the direct result of my grandmother," she explained. "She never got over grandfather leaving her. She passed it on to her kids and died with that hate in her. Her children passed on the hate to their spouses and then on to her grandchildren. 'It's all grandfather's fault our lives are awful.' It was just about to fade into something my brother and I could ignore, but my mother went to Alderaan on a trip, and died at the hands of the very same Dickhead of the Sith. . .. I assume you know the story."

Han's voice echoed in his mind, _'That's what I'm trying to tell yeah kid, it's been totally blown away._ Luke said with a dry voice, "Yeah, I know the story."

"So, in a nutshell, my father doesn't want Nik or I to have anything to do with the Jedi because of the death of my grandfather and my mother."

Luke twitched, "That's a little narrow minded isn't it? Your father should be blaming the Empire for both deaths if he's going to blame somebody."

Kess hated explaining this, but after telling Yana and Joanne, Kaila and Shorkey, and about a dozen other friends and servicemates, she was starting to get used to it. She sat down on the bed patiently, "The Civil War has taken a toll on a great many families. Both the Alliance and the Empire have killed and tallied their losses at about the same rate. I don't blame anybody, or the hate would eat me from the inside out. I agree with you. The Jedi should be reformed so we can end this stupid war and keep the Alliance on its feet."

Luke smiled at her, tongue guiltily in molar, and pointed passed his muffin, "Now your starting to talk like a Jedi."

Kess sighed again, maintaining her patience despite the boyish grin. "My father agrees with you. He hates the Empire and wants the Alliance back. He just doesn't want the Alliance to do it with _his_ children." 

He leaned forward, his face finally went serious, "So you joined the Alliance anyway."

Kess crossed her arms, "A Repair Engineer is a lot different than a Jedi Knight."

Luke nodded, "So you joined the Alliance anyway."

Kess leaned forward, perturbed, "My other choice was to stay on Tatooine. You would join too."

"I _did_ join the Alliance _and_ became a Jedi. . .. and I am still alive and well."

"You're just lucky," she accused standing up.

His tone dropped, "There is no such thing as luck."

She turned away, rubbing her temple.

He stood up, put both hands on his hips, and stepped to her. "Look." He inhaled a sigh of tested patience, "You want to train. You want to be a Jedi. You know it, and I know it, and you can't lie to me about it. You are holding back because of your family, and that is justifiable. I have no right to get involved. I won't even order you to learn how to _not_ use it if you feel so strongly about it." His eyes narrowed further on hers. "You've convinced yourself that you can't train. Until you convince yourself otherwise, nothing I can to say will change your mind. So, I won't even try." He backed up a pace.

Kess swallowed dryly, trying to tear her eyes away from his serious stare. He saw through her like she was made of glass, laid the facts boldly out in front of her, and left the ball in bouncing off the walls in her court.

His voice was low and deathly serious. "But, the dark side is a greater enemy than the wrath of your father. You just let me know when you realize that." With that, Luke left the room and shut the door behind him.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Governor Levilot set his shoulders back as he awaited the Imperial party. He made it a point to somehow keep this routine meeting from appearing too routine. These few minutes during the Admiral's greeting were bound to set the emotion for the duration of the Imperial presence. Considering that he wasn't going to be present for most of the Admiral Cheenan's stay, he set his objective to ease the job for Vice Governor Daitahn. 

Two wings of the Imperial shuttle folded up for the craft to land. A circle of green landing lights reflected against the ships clean hull as it lowered to the polished surface of the docking bay. Levilot and his small crew remained at attention until the ramp came down like a tongue and the Imperial party marched out.

Admiral Cheenan had a low ranked aide in tow in the exact position that Daitahn stood with Levilot. The groups met in the center of the walkway. Stale bows were followed by stiff greetings, "Welcome to Frakkan, Admiral Cheenan. May I escort you to your suite?"

The Admiral's pace didn't pause and he nodded before Levilot even offered. "Thank you."

A band of stormtroopers followed the Governor and the Admiral to the street. In a large, covered speeder, the politicians sat down and pulled down the door to close. The dark morning went even darker through the tinted windows of the six-person speeder. Daitahn sat next to Levilot, facing backward in the vehicle. 

Now facing him for the first time this visit, Daitahn focused on the Admiral. The wrinkles in his aged face seemed to have deepened in the last few months, probably caused by the threat of the growing Rebellion. Daitahn knocked on the window to initiate the driver and settled in for the moderate ride.

Governor Levilot had a way with looking respectable even when crunched in a sitting position. Small talk did not have to be completely avoided as long as is sounded boring. "How is Supreme Prophet Kadaan?"

Admiral Cheenan didn't meet the man's eyes. "He is well."

Silence hung in the air. The Admiral's blue eyes shifted as though a dozen tired thoughts continued to zip back and forth in his mind. He finally decided to speak on the one that was already mentioned, "He is eager to hear any news regarding his last communiqué." 

Levilot remained calm in his mind and especially in his emotions. "I have my network following on a few vague leads," he said pessimistically. "I shall see to it that Daitahn has the report for your meeting tomorrow."

Admiral Cheenan rubbed a weary eye with one hand, "That will be adequate." His gaze fell out the window. "Master Kadaan is anxious to get his hands on that Usak." The Admiral's tired eyes watched the lights of the Capital City go racing by through a tinted window. His hand fell to his lap again and absentmindedly tapped once against the hilt of his lightsaber. "Come to think of it, so am I."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Kess was still standing there, alone in her room. He heart thumped an irregular beat, her palms were sweating, and she exhaled through an open mouth. How much more had he read from her? Were none of her secrets safe? Or was he just bluffing?

Luke's voice echoed in her head, _'The dark side is a greater enemy than the wrath of your father.'_

Then her father's voice argued against it, '_The Jedi have caused our family nothing but grief!'_

Kess wiped her palms on her pants and turned around, looking for something to do. She hoped for anything that could to occupy her mind. Her clothes were already put away. There were no schematics to study, to letters to write. She found nothing to distract her.

_'If I were you, I wouldn't be taking the dark side so lightly,'_ she remembered.

The info report had said that Darth Vader had issued the order to fire on Alderaan. The Lord of the Sith was Emperor Palatine's second in charge. 

Kess sat down gingerly on her bed. The words rolled in her head: Sith. Darth Vader. Emperor Palpatine. The Death Star. She learned about them in school, in Alliance training, on the info reports, and in the grapevine. She knew that anyone who could use the good side of the Force was just as capable of using the dark side.

_'You haven't seen my third degree.'_

A chill ran up her back. The info report said that Vader killed the Emperor, and died in the process. Luke simply observed it and lived to tell the tale? 

"Yeah, right!" said Kaila from the barracks couch as they watched the report. "I'll bet you, Skywalker had to turn to the dark side to kill them and doesn't want to admit that that's how he did it!" 

Kess closed her eyes at the memory. At the time, her mind was being flooded with too much information at once. Now, years later, only feet away from the Jedi in question, that detail was all she could think about. How did she know that Luke wasn't a Dark Jedi to begin with, and he simply wasn't telling her. . . .?

She shook her head. "You're freaking yourself out, Kesselia." She stood up and went to the bathroom, pausing to knock before opening the door. Lieutenant Kesselia K. Lendra, Jedi Knight and Y-wing repair manager. She chuckled to herself. It must have been a damned good security check. No one had called her Kesselia since she was knee high to a Jawa, and as far as she knew, the Alliance had no record that Kesselia was even her real name. Someone in intelligence must really like their job.

Standing in front of the sink, she switched on the hot hypo, and waited for the spray to mix. The whirring of the hypo mixer echoed through the white room and she looked at herself in the mirror. Jedi Knight and Living Legend, she smiled, and Gold Group Repair grunt. 

The reflection in the mirror began to fuzz, but it was only the reflection of the hypo-shower behind her. Thinking it might be a weird steam effect, she turned off the hot hypo, but by the time the whirring stopped, an old face had faded in from nothing.

Kess froze. 

An elderly man stood behind her. He had gray eyes and a hooded robe. He was transparent, like a hologram, but this was no hologram. This was a ghost. Kess recognized him immediately.

"Yes, I am your grandfather, Kesselia." The figure spoke.

She stopped breathing. 

"Do not make your decision based on what you think your father will do. . .. Do not make your decision based on your father at all."

_You left. You have no right,_ she was going to say.

"I have every right," he said, and faded away.

Kess bolted out the bathroom door and tore into the living room, gasping for air. She wished her heart would stop pounding in her ears. Scared witless, she went straight for the only person in the room, Han, and sat down right next to him. "Where's your blaster?"

Han looked at her and chuckled, "What happened to you?"

Her eyes went everywhere, seeing figures in the corners of her eyes, watching for moving shadows, sitting as edgy as a squirrel. "Ah, you wouldn't believe me. . . . It's crazy." Suddenly she realized her actions and stood up. 

Han shoved a thumb over his shoulder, "Hey, around them two, nothing's crazy." He looked back at his datapad and continued. "You think it's bad now? Just wait until Luke starts moving things from the other side of the room."

As if on cue, Luke's door slid open and he took one step out. His voice sounded concerned, "What happened?"

As he slowly stepped to her, Kess backed up out of the sitting area to the wall of window. 

He watched her with worried eyes and gently put his hands on her shoulders. "Take a deep breath." 

She shuddered and stared at him, terrified. "I just saw a ghost."

Luke blinked a moment, then realized what she meant and suppressed his grin.

She laughed nervously, "It was my grandfather. This is crazy." Her laugh faded quickly into paranoia.

Luke kept his voice even and trusting, "What did he say?"

Kess wriggled out of his grip, side-stepped to the kitchen and cleared her throat, "He uh, said something about not making decisions based on my father." 

He took two careful steps to follow her, realizing that any quick movements would spook the poor animal even more. The message from the 'ghost' weighed heavily in his mind, though it did weigh heavily in his favor. Her grandfather must have been a Jedi, otherwise he would not have been able to come back to appear to her. The grand scheme of things must depend on her training, otherwise he would not have appeared to her at all. Luke saw Ben rarely after his death, saw Master Yoda twice, and his father only once. Those guys did not show up just to visit.

She had positioned herself on the other side of the table. Her eyes drilled his, "What are you not telling me?"

"There's a lot I'm not telling you," he admitted easily. He took another careful step to her. "You've been insisting that you don't want to know."

The gears were visibly crunching as they tried to work this out in her head. She watched his every move. "This is a bad idea."

He took another gentle step and he was in front of her again. His eyes were fixed on hers and he took another step around. "_Not_ training, is a _worse_ idea. Let me teach you."

Her heart pounded. _Stop beating so hard! I can't hear anything else_, she told her pulse. "You've know me for less than a week and you've already picked me as your next apprentice?"

"You're my first apprentice." He corrected with a gentle grin, "And I know you better than you think." He held out a hand to her.

Kess looked at his hand and shifted her weight on her other foot, "You're not gonna leave me alone about this are you?"

He shook his head. "You have a power you don't understand. Let me at least explain it to you."

She tightened her crossed arms. "What about my father?" she asked rhetorically. 

Luke watched her, and watched her fragile emotions swirl around, "I'll explain it to you. Once you understand, you can explain it to him in a way he can understand."

Kess tightened her jaw, not fully convinced this was the right decision, but knowing she couldn't debate herself out of it, and not sure if she really wanted to try. She'd always wanted to be a Jedi, even though she was never sure what 'being a Jedi' really meant. She studied the woolen fabric of his black tunic, the Jedi uniform, and looked up at his face. 

Kess decided she could convince her father that becoming a Jedi Knight on purpose is better than becoming a Jedi Sith by accident. Well, her father was going to have her hide, but at least she'd be able to defend herself when he did. With a deep sigh, she stiffened her lips and said. "All right, show me then."

Luke was so happy he wanted to hug her, but he only smiled. He led her to the elevator and dropped her hand to request a car. The reflective doors slid aside. He walked in and leaned his back to the wall, crossing his arms and crossing his ankles. She silently followed with her head bowed in a kind of defeat. Folding her arms tightly at her chest, she stared at the floor and leaned her back against the opposite wall. The doors slid closed.

She cleared her throat, "Do I call you 'Master' now?"

Luke shook his head. "No, just call me Luke."

A heavy silence fell in the elevator. Luke sensed that she was still having trouble with her decision and hoped she wouldn't suddenly change her mind. He also recognized that there was more to his desire to get her to train than the simple need to make more Jedi Knights. He dropped his head and stared at the elevator's carpet. He wanted company.

"How long will this take?" her meek voice echoed in the close confines.

Luke looked up again, thinking, and shrugged. "An hour maybe."

"No, no." She squared her shoulders and adjusted her feet, "I mean the whole training… how long until I become a Jedi Knight?"

Her commitment sent a smile into Luke's eyes. He stared at her for a moment until the doors slid open. He stood up straight, dropping his arms, and admitted as if he liked it, "I have no idea." 

Her brow furrowed at him.

Luke looked both ways, and chose a path to the left. He strolled casually down the hall, "I've never done this before. I can probably come up with an estimate for you later on."

The hotel lobby hall was decorated in the same blue and lavender as the suite. Polished, durasteel walls had no windows. The sitting areas, the small bar, and the gambling tables, were all cleaned for the next day and void of human, alien, or droid. He stopped in front of a set of doors. His eyes twinkled at her. "Is that all right?" He punched the door open and politely ushered her into the night air. 

Kess sighed and past him out the door. "I'll live with it." The salty breeze returned, sending a blonde strand across her cheek. He had taken them to a carefully sculptured courtyard. Brick pathways wound in and out of giant, red-barked trees. Stubby lamps dotted along the walk under various bushes and other plant life. A bird cawed as it flew away. Their boots thumped on the brick as they strolled.

Luke started calculating training. "You're training will have to come first even though it will seem like an extra-curricular activity. I'm here for the treaty and you're here to fix the Falcon and even when we get back to Yavin 4, I'm still commanding Rogue Group and you'll have go back to Gold Group." 

He led their stroll away from the hotel even though its height could be seen for miles. He found a gentle slope on the side of the path. "You'll need to wake up with me every morning. We'll train before work and again after dinner." The clearing was surrounded with thick bushes and massive trees. He could feel three fluffy tailed rodents climbing through the brush to their home. The little spot wasn't strong in the Force, but there were more Force glowing objects for her to detect than there would have been in the hotel suite. Luke stopped. "Most of it will need to be practiced during routine events anyway."

Kess stopped with him, not noticing the change in pace, "What do you know about my routine events?" She crossed her arms from the chilly air.

Luke took her hand and smirked as though it was another rhetorical question. He led her off the path and pulled her in front to face the wall of trees and bushes, then dropped her hand. He positioned himself behind her as if there was a beautiful view for them to look at. "What do you see?"

Kess snarled, "A bunch o' trees."

Luke nodded. That was just what he expected her to say, "Close your eyes." 

Kess reluctantly closed her eyes and faced the wall of trees.

Luke backed away a single pace, "Open your mind." He let his defenses down to feel her emotions during the process. His own nervousness washed over his soul. He was treading on new and dangerous ground now. The training had begun and there was no room for mistakes. As for her emotional state: her attitude was being held at bay. Curiosity is what brought her down here, and that was good enough for now. 

"Life itself creates the Force, and consumes it at the same time. The Force flows through everything from the vacuum of space, to planets, the people, and even the trees in front of you. It binds the galaxy together." He felt unoriginal quoting both of his Masters in the same instruction, but really couldn't think of a better way to put it. "When you move, the Force moves with you, it pushes ahead of you, and it swirls behind you. When you're just standing there, it flows right through you, like it is right now."

"Is it like water in another dimension?"

Luke winced a little, "Sort of… It's that sixth sense everyone feels, it's psychic ability, it's extra sensory perception, it's emotion and it's peace, just being called something different in different religions." He rubbed his lips together and spied her expression. Her eyes were still closed, but she wasn't getting it. 

Kess raised an eyebrow, she could smell the vegetation, she could hear an animal crawling, and she could feel the cool breeze on her exposed skin, but she could not feel anything going through her. 

"Open your mind," he said quietly. "Concentrate on all your senses at once." 

The sleeves of her coveralls fluttered gently against her skin. The tang of salt from the breeze touched her tongue. The leaves rustled against leaves. Scents of earth and fresh oxygen filled the air. She could see nothing. Her eyes were closed.

"Your emotions are a sense too," his voice said. 

"How can-" 

"What are you feeling?" He knew she could do it, if she could just break through the confines of the third dimension. She had to open her mind enough to feel the Force with a fresh attitude. She stood there with her arms hanging at her sides. She was confused, but remained attentive nonetheless. 

Finally, he decided to try and accentuate the sense that she could not identify. He knew it was like trying to tell a muscle to move, a muscle you didn't know you had. It was easier to feel it when the muscle was already flexed. He touched her mind, closed his eyes, and he reached back to push the Force swirling through her.

Kess inhaled deeply.

Her hands slowly rose as though she was standing chest deep in a river of water. Her mouth remained open in shock and her eyes closed in concentration. Suddenly there was more to the wind than just air and there was more to the air than just oxygen. She found a whole new set of senses. She could feel without using her skin. She could smell without using her nose. She could hear as though the whole planet was using a giant microphone and the speakers bypassed her ears and went straight to her brain. She could see colors in the darkness of her eyelids. She could feel emotions that weren't even hers. . . .

Luke opened his eyes and smiled. He stepped back farther, removing his influence. "Now say something," he whispered.

"How co-" She heard her own voice echo in a dozen musical notes. Lowering her voice to a whisper barely lowered the volume of the notes. She talked through an electric organ and felt the vibration of the sound in her heartbeat. She was talking through her mouth and through the Force at the same time. _"How come I couldn't do this before?"_

Luke crossed his arms with a grin and leaned a shoulder up against a tree. He spoke with only his mind, a dozen deep musical notes altered his voice on the Force, _"You _**_were_**_ doing this before. . .. Only you were doing it much, much louder."_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

It had been a very, very long day.

Kess followed Artoo into the elevator, twittering quietly to himself, and rested her exhausted body against the reflecting walls, not really caring if the grease that covered her coveralls rubbed off onto the meticulously cleaned surface. Her eyes drifted closed and open again, paying no attention to the squared shoulders of the unbelievably alert Wookiee, and reviewed how dirty she had gotten from one day of work on the Falcon. 

Her exhaustion didn't surprise her. The morning had started out all wrong in the first place. Getting in a fight with Luke on the way into the Frakkan system had spent enough of her energy in worry alone, much less the fact that they had been up for 25 hours already. First, the Falcon breaks down in hyperspace, then the Star Destroyers, and then her first taste of the Force. . . . Kess smiled weakly as she remembered Luke's easy grin. That is, after she finally built up the guts to turn around. For only an hour that morning, he began his series of teachings. Kind, firm, wise, and very much to the point, he instructed her the basics of simply how to sense the Force itself. 

That quiet peace in the courtyard came to a quick end. Chewbacca and Kess were ushered off to begin repairs before the Ambassador arrived. Leia explained absentmindedly that the Frakkan government would automatically assume that Chewie and Kess were a part of the negotiating party. She wanted to make it clear on the first day that Kess was in repair and Chewie was to be the ship's Captain who were here strictly to transport the group and fix the Falcon, not negotiate. Kess had shrugged, knowing all the while that the Counselor simply didn't want the gruff and rude Wookiee or the uneducated-in-treaty-garbage Lieutenant to make any mistakes at breakfast as they probably would have. 

She remembered adjusting her ball cap as she grinned to the highly polished politicians busily getting ready for their engagement. "I'm sorry," she had said sarcastically, "but how am I supposed to pretend that Chewie's my Skipper if I can't understand a word he says?"

Han explained matter-of-factly, pointing at each as he spoke. "You understand Artoo, Artoo understands Chewie. . .. Bluff it!"

Artoo had whistled a pessimistic response to the plan, "We are going to die." 

The droid had more than enough wear on his speakers translating every derogatory comment Chewie had made in Kess' direction. Regardless of her arguments or her careful suggestions, she had been given the duty of finding all the hull breaches and writing up a list of the parts therein that needed replacement. Therefore, she had been stuffed in more than a dozen tiny, grimy, unlit cracks, storage compartments, and crawl-ways that hadn't seen attention in years. Kess looked at herself in the reflection again, the once olive drab jumpsuit, was now smeared with black grease and dirt from her collar to her ankles.

The car stopped at their level and Chewie punched his card key into the slot. The door slid open and sunlight poured into the elevator. Kess stepped out to finally see the impressive view intended for the one entire wall of window. The panoramic view of the glorious orange sunset from fifty stories high was simply breathtaking. The golden circle of Frakkan's star was just touching on a blue-violet linoleum horizon. Silently, she moved through the sitting area in awe, ignoring the other bodies in the room. 

Luke glanced at her from where he stood. He had already changed into an ivory shirt and fitted tan pants. Leaning his shoulder fearlessly against the wall of glass, he admired the view as well, "Strange sight, isn't it?"

Her focus traveled from the bright star to where the sunlight reflected from a thousand tiny curves of the blue surface. The laminate covered half the planet it seemed, gray blue at the horizon and fading into mauve as it reached the reddish sand below. Her eyes focused and her brow furrowed. 

The surface was _moving_. 

Her fingertips gently touched the window as she spoke with a voiceless gasp, "It that… water!?" 

Luke smiled at her in brief amazement, but quickly realized that she hadn't gone on as many adventures as he had. Raised on a desert planet, now living on a swampy, jungle thick moon, and maybe even spent some time on Hoth, not one place in her history had a convenient ocean to view.

"But, it's just. . ." Kess swallowed a dry gulp in disbelief, "sitting there!" She heard a low rumble as Luke quietly chuckled. "Well, I've never been on a Class M before!" She frantically defended her naiveté, "Can we go down and take a closer look?"

Luke nodded, "Sure."

Kess felt rejuvenated having scrubbed clean of the grime and dressed in fresh clothes. Excited like a little kid in an amusement park, she skipped into the elevator, looking eagerly to the window before the scene disappeared. She combed a blonde tuft away from her temple, crossed her arms, and grinned at Luke. "So!" She blurted out brightly and then dropped her tone to nearly monotonous. "How was your day?"

Luke chuckled again, "All right, I suppose." He folded his arms at his chest and leaned against the far wall. Rolled sleeves receded from muscular forearms. "And how was yours?" he returned comically.

Kess shrugged, "I'd rather be playing sabaac." Then her nose wrinkled in curiosity, in confusion. She was staring at his chest, then her eyes moved to his shoulders, then forearms. 

Luke began to feel a little uncomfortable as the Lieutenant reviewed him like she had just realized he was an unidentified life form, but waited for the question to blurt from her lips.

She asked without wording it first. "Why are you in such good shape?"

Luke's squinting eyes dashed to the floor and back at her. He grinned as he stated the obvious, "Because I work out a lot."

She smiled sheepishly, "No, what I mean is, why bother? If you can move things with your mind and accent your strength with the Force, why go out of your way?"

He nodded, finally understanding the question. "I don't depend on the Force. I can't use it all the time and I try not using it unless I have to."

"Well… why can't you use it all the time?"

The elevator door opened. Luke led the stroll out, pondering a way to approach the first lesson. He slid his hands into the thin fabric of his front pockets and walked casually to the same courtyard they visited that morning. 

"There are two sides of the Force," he began, meeting her eyes and looking away, "the light side and the dark side. The light side is comprised of peace, knowledge, serenity. The dark side is anger, fear, aggression, etcetera. A Jedi Knight is a servant of the light side of the Force, exercising the ability only at times of peace and serenity." 

Kess kept up attentively, "So, what do you do when you're pissed off and you still have to fight?"

"That's simple." He punched the door control and met her eyes, "Don't get pissed off." He watched her eyes rolled back in her head and grinned as he followed her out to the brick pathway. "Since it's nearly impossible to control when you will be fighting, concentrations have to go toward controlling your dark emotions. When the time comes, you'll be prepared to defend yourself on the light side."

Short pine trees shaded their path from the twilight. The cool breeze grew stronger as they past the tiny clearing they had visited the night before. The foot walk wove deeper into the courtyard, disappearing into the bushes ahead and heading straight for where the waterline should be. 

Kess scanned the plant life of Frakkan as they passed; only minutely interested in botany at the moment. "So how do you control your emotions?" Suddenly she grinned, remembering his many attempts to calm her down on the trip. "I just figured out my first lesson, didn't I?"

Luke smiled sarcastically, "You have tremendous insight." After strolling a few more paces, he said, "There is a mantra we use to help remind us where our priorities lie, how to tell the good side from the bad, and to even calm emotions that are out of control. It's called the Jedi Code. 'There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no death; there is the Force.'" 

He watched her as he walked, waiting for a response. He could see her mind chewing on it and trying to decide if she liked how it tasted. 

She scratched her ear and absentmindedly whipped her sandy hair over her shoulder. "It sounds to me like all you need is a good frontal lobotomy and you've mastered it."

Luke grinned, "If the Code is followed to its logical end, that's true. But as a Jedi, you still have enough emotions left to care about what your doing and why. You can still see right and wrong. You can still be happy and sad. You can still have victories and failures. You just need to control the intensity of it."

Kess winced nervously, "Don't you get bored?"

Luke smiled white teeth, "Oh no." He shook his head at the brick beneath his feet. "No, I do not get bored at all." He sighed heavily, looking ahead to the path and where it led them. The thin, sculptured forest was about to come to an abrupt halt, "Boredom is an effect of not knowing what to do with peace. A Jedi does not crave excitement, or wealth, or power. . . ." His voice died as he realized she was no longer listening.

Her attentions focused on the finish line. She sped up her pace and watched the trees move out of her way to reveal a giant blue-purple ocean. Foamy waves crashed on the shore of rust colored sand in a powerful, irregular pattern. As the brick path came to an end, her boots sank into the soft mounds. Her eyes filled with wonder as she crossed the hundred some feet of empty beach. The far away sun dipped behind the planet turning the sky a rainbow of peach and ash orange. Kess stopped where the sand was still wet, afraid to touch the precious liquid regardless of its abundance here. She watched the waves swell to several feet high, curling over and tripping on itself, reaching towards her in a flat sheet of foam, and finally retreat, just to perform the feat over again.

"Why do you want to become a Jedi?" His deep voice was suddenly behind her.

Startled, she turned. He stood behind her right shoulder, watching her instead of the colorful sight. She looked back to the ocean, taking it all in. "I'm really more interested in the Force than the Jedi. I know it's there. I've always known it's there and I've always known that I had the ability to touch it, . . .n." She reached out ahead of her, touching the sea breeze as it brushed passed her fingers. "I just could never figure out how to do it."

Luke stepped up beside her and faced her, adjusting his hands in his pockets. "If you suddenly had the ability to manipulate the Force in any way you wanted. . . . what is the first thing you would do?"

Kess inhaled and stopped. A dozen things rushed to her mind. She wanted to manipulate her father's opinion about it. She wanted to know how Lieutenant Commander Shorkey really felt about her engineering abilities. She wanted alter Solo's attitude and make him let her into the navcomputer, but the ocean called her with every crashing wave. The water reached for her feet and slowly pulled away, like a giant beckoning finger. She stared out over the water and said in a distant voice, "I'd hear what the ocean has to say."

Luke let himself smile and back up a step. With an open hand to the vast ocean, he offered it to her. "Then, by all means listen."

For hours, Kess practiced the art of simply sensing things. The ocean, the trees, and the sand were some of the first things she could identify to sense. Then Luke had to turn her attentions onto things that she couldn't see with her eyes: the ants, the mugrats under the sand, crustaceans in the sea, the wind. He encouraged her to hear and smell, to feel different things using few words and none of his own Force tricks to help. She had to explore it on her own.

Concentrating with her eyes closed for most of the exercise, she hadn't noticed that the sun had disappeared for another revolution. The sky was black with pinpricks of stars, satellites, and ships. She yawned.

Sitting next to her in the dry sand, Luke took the hint, and just before he finished the lesson, he taught her one more exercise.

"Jedi Meditation?" She echoed with a snarl.

"It's necessary to keep your emotions in check. Everyday, as many times a day as you have to, but at least everyday. Eventually you'll sleep in a thicker version of it. But for now, it will keep you from having nightmares."

"I really don't have nightmares that often."

Luke raised an eyebrow, "I really don't care." 

The technique was so simple she could have guessed it. Close your eyes, breath slowly and think of nothing. Though it seamed stupid to her (beside being nearly impossible to think of nothing) she obliged his instruction and went quietly, tiredly, to bed.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  ** 

Luke's eyes opened to the darkness at exactly zero four hundred. He sat up with a grin and dressed quickly in exercise clothes. In the silence of pre-dawn, he could hear the muffled voice of Kess' alarm, but Kess didn't move. 

Luke smiled. He knew that this was going to be the hard part: getting her up in the morning. While tending to the last button on his warm shirt, he went to her bedroom door and pressed the button. The door quietly beeped, telling him that it was locked.

Hearing the alarm voice activate again, he paused to see if she was going to rise. She didn't. Reluctantly, he put his thoughts to the door lock and switched it open. Luke stepped boldly into the woman's dark bedroom and snapped on the lights.

"Hey!" Kess groaned, shading her eyes from the bright light.

Luke ignored her complaint, grabbed her blankets with both hands and yanked them right off her body. She automatically curled up in a fetal position, even though the room wasn't cold. 

"Get up!" He ordered gruffly. He cursed himself for not checking for pajamas before he ripped the blankets off, and then thanked the Force that she was wearing them.

Kess rolled out of bed and landed on her feet. Gathering fitful hair with both hands, she hissed at him through squinted eyes. "Did I happen to mention that I HATE getting up this early?"

"Tsk tsk." Luke shook his finger, "Hate is on the dark side." He almost grinned, pulling out a warm set of exercise clothes for her, "You're just going to have to learn to like it." He threw the clothes at her. Kess grouchily caught them in mid air, leering at him.

Luke strutted back to the door. "You have two minutes before I come in and dress you myself."

Kess' evil eyes watched him leave the room and shut the door. She half considered not dressing just to see if he would do it. She pulled off her pajamas grinning fiendishly at the thought.

He was almost bouncy when they reached the courtyard, much too awake for zero four fifteen. He had already made a superior Jedi comment about her grouchiness, but that only made her grouchiness worse. His voice was a little loud, his face was bright, and his movements were happy and alive. 

She followed him slowly, barely taking her feet off the ground. His cheerfulness almost made her sick to her stomach. She wondered what traumatic event in the man's life made his brain so badly malfunction. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a little sick in the head?"

Luke stretched his sleepy muscles and smiled at her. "No. Not until today." He bounced on his toes and moved towards the beach. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

Kess looked him in the eye. Her brows knotted to their fullest extent. "Yes," she said heavily, and followed him sluggishly out to the sandy beach. 

Luke started jogging backwards, "Run."

Kess shuffled her feet in the sand, "You have _got_ to be kidding."

He stopped and slumped his shoulders, searching his brain for ways to effectively motivate the woman. He looked at her, realized that his disposition was having no effect on her disposition, and then looked around for some idea, some clue. . . .

Kess stopped in front of him, arms hanging limply at her sides and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I don't see how running down a beach at oh four hundred has anything to do with the Force."

Luke eyes suddenly twinkled with an idea and he looked directly into her sleepy brown eyes. "Run, or I will throw you in the water."

Kess wanted to say 'you wouldn't dare', but she could tell by his boyish grin that he would dare and he would probably enjoy it too. Reluctantly, Kess began to jog slowly down the beach.

The twinkle brightened in his eye as she began to move. Luke kept up with her pace following close behind, "I said run, not jog."

Kess closed her eyes for a brief moment. Keeping her temper and hoping that if she followed his stupid orders for exercise, the exercise wouldn't last long. Somehow, she knew she was wrong. She sped up only a little.

"C'mon!" He urged. He wanted her to at least break a sweat this morning. "Faster."

There was sure to be much more to the Force and ways to discipline herself with it than she could possibly imagine. If she didn't follow his instruction to run, he would probably just think of something more absurd. She was here to learn the ways of the Jedi and he was here to teach her that. She picked up the pace, and Luke kept up behind.

It was as though he'd been running like this for years and reveled in the fact that he suddenly had somebody to run with. "Faster!" He growled with a sort of happy tone in his voice.

How much was enough? Maybe he was just trying to break her attitude like the other officers did in the Alliance's quick and dirty version of basic training. She was tired of mind games and decided, in a fury of resentment, to give him exactly what he wanted. 

Kess bolted down the beach, running as fast as she could so he'd at least shut up. She kicked rooster tails of sand behind her for over a kilometer, as far as her legs and lungs could take her at that speed. She could hear Luke panting behind her, but keeping up easily. The sky began to brighten, signaling the approaching sun. Kess ran until her chest heaved for air, and after a four- minute long sprint, finally brought the mad dash to a skidding stop. 

Locking her elbow on her knees, she panted to the ground. Her voice filled with impatience, "Are you satisfied now?"

Luke trotted to a stop in front of her, putting his hand on his knees just so he could look her in the eye. Beads of clean sweat dripped from his forehead. His lungs heaved for air as well, but not nearly in the same desperation. Blue eyes sparkled at her, "Are you still angry at me for waking you up and making you run?"

Kess shot a glare at him. Of course she was.

Luke shrugged and stepped away to continue the jog, "Then I'm not satisfied."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

In guest chair, Ambassador Shuley stared at her set of notes from a convenient datapad. She only read, keeping the facts straight in her mind and adjusting priorities to accommodate. She would not accept failure on her first ambassadorial assignment, and her relentlessness was starting to get on Daitahn's nerves.

Vice Governor Daitahn reviewed his own report for perfection on his laptop while waiting for Governor Levilot to arrive. The smooth hide covering the guest chair made the gray uniform want to slide right off. He had to adjust in the seat every few minutes to maintain his sitting position and keep the computer balancing on his lap. 

The door behind them sighed open. Levilot strutted in with a purpose, dropping a datapad on each of their laps as he passed to the desk in the rented office. "Lak dota, mi kala," he spoke Frakkan in a rich accent, addressing them as friends to make it sound more casual. He reviewed the 'new news' he spoke of from the third datapad and planned the discussion while they put down their own reports to read it for the first time.

Shuley was the first to comment, "Mugwot Pon was going by the information _we gave him_. With that information, there is no definite way of positively identifying the Usak without doubt."

"There is no way for _anyone_ to positively identify the Usak except for Jedi Skywalker." Daitahn interrupted pessimistically. "And we can't ask him for confirmation."

Levilot held up a hand for silence. His assistants immediately obliged. With a heavy sigh, he began, "Whether or not it is the Usak we've brought to Frakkan is of little concern. Our goal is to convince the Supreme Prophet and Admiral Cheenan that it is their Usak we are giving them. I have studied this issue backward and forward and I believe we can accomplish that if Jedi Skywalker endorses it." 

Daitahn brought up an impatient hand, "How is Skywalker going to endorse the Usak if we don't ask him?"

The Governor rose, stepping thoughtfully to the side of his desk. "Mugwot planted the closest thing we could find to Kadaan's Usak on the Falcon. Skywalker will eventually identify its properties for us, and we will record his every word and movement, using _that_ as his endorsement. We simply need to buy time until that happens. Shuley has opened negotiations for the post severance treaty and she will concentrate on that until sufficient data has been collected. You are tending to the whims of out fearless Sith Admiral and will continue to do so until he leaves. As for this report. . ." he sighed, glancing at the datapad on his desk. "I'm going to assume that we are not the only system trying to use this bargaining chip to peacefully sever from the Empire. So we still have to move quickly and come up with the most convincing Usak that Kadaan can imagine."

Shuley listened quietly, but plan B still bothered her. "And if the Princess doesn't relinquish Usak rights?"

Levilot tightened his lips. "The New Alliance is a forgiving government, but still I don't want to create unnecessary friction. They nearly sacrificed Skywalker himself to destroy the second Death Star for the good of the Rebellion. They'll sacrifice the Usak for our propulsion industry. We shall go forward on the premise that they will relinquish. Though I am prepared to, I do not want to steal the Usak unless I absolutely have to." 

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"C'mon Artoo." Kess motioned. 

The droid rolled up behind her ready to follow her out of the docking bay. Chewie wanted Artoo to accompany her only because he didn't trust the Lieutenant out in the Imperial ruled city alone. Kess had no official experience acting under cover, but the task was easy and all the information was provided. This was as good a time as any to get her feet wet. 

She shoved the commlink in her front pocket and bounced out to one of Sultani's main streets. This was the biggest benefit of an Alliance commission: the excitement of visiting new planets and meeting new species, to adapt to other cultures and other laws. Her insides sizzled with fascination. 

In the bright blue daylight, the street bustled with activity. Speeders of all shapes and colors zipped up the white paved road to unknown destinations. Many more were parked at the curbs while their owners visited shops, restaurants, and beaches. Their hotel was on the same side of the same street, looming over fifty stories tall of clean glass walls. The building was nearly camouflaged. Rows of buildings in both directions met at least that height and taller. Small shops of every kind, crowded with pastel clad Frakkans, occupied the first floor of nearly every skyscraper. With theirs and many other obvious docking pads scattered up and down the street, Kess was bound to find a parts shop within walking distance. 

She paid attention to the plant life: dark green, mostly pines. She studied the architecture: streamline and clean-cut. She noticed the people: well dressed, short hair. No. The men had short hair of various colors, but the women all had their hair tied up in a ring that sat on top of their heads, and all shades of red, auburn, and orange.

Artoo whistled from behind. 

Kess didn't slow her anxious stride, "Is that monster ever not hungry? What kind of lunch do you think Chewie's in the mood for?"

Artoo whistled again, dodging other pedestrians that took no notice of him.

Kess shrugged, "Okay, let me know if you see something tasty." Her eyes fell upon a parts store across the street and up a block.

Quickly, she hopped off the curb and zipped between racing speeders. In seconds, she stepped into the polished store with Artoo at her heals. It was just what the doctor ordered. Scanning the aisles, she found piece by piece either exactly what she was looking for or something that would work in its place. Few patrons occupied the aisles, giving Kess the elbowroom to browse a bit. Her efforts led her to sections she had no need of visiting, and Artoo beeped indignantly when she slowly picked up a handle like, hollow cylinder.

"I wouldn't consider that." Artoo warned.

"Why not?" Kess grinned, holding the cylinder in her hand and moving it in the air as she imagined a meter long blade at its end. "I designed the blasted thing. I should be able to see if it will even work. Besides, Luke might take the effort as extra credit homework."

Artoo shook his dome head in defeat, knowing he wouldn't get through the thick skull of a human. He simply kept up with her as her attentions suddenly went to collecting the pieces for a practice lightsaber. 

Over the past week, her sleeping rhythm had fought the new pattern with an uncontrollable wave of grouchiness. But after repeated threats of being rudely tossed into bitter cold water (and once been actually carried by an invisible Force in that direction until she obeyed) the logical side forced her out of bed more timely with each passing day. Luke pushed her into heavy exercise in the chilly morning air. Each day he ran her farther and faster down the beach, always rewarding with a only smile at the end. Each evening he concentrated on quiet and peaceful Jedi exercises, pulling her farther and farther down the path to complete serenity. Kess enjoyed the evenings better.

When Kess was outside of his direct influence, her emotional state, namely, her attitude, hadn't ventured far from the quick-tempered Repair Engineer she'd practiced under before the trip to Frakkan. Luke had pointed out, more than once, that her exercises needed to be practiced during her normal, daily routines. More than once, Kess acknowledged his direction with fervor, swearing allegiance, even in her own mind. 

But when an electro-mechanic issue, or a small wiring detail, or the ranges of a particular reading, rose between her and Chewbacca, her Jedi lessons were, for the moment, completely forgotten. Kess kept getting into repeated yelling matches with the Wookiee and with Solo, sometimes ignoring them and instead throwing a hand tool viciously at the hull. Usually after a few minutes, Kess would realize she'd lost her temper and calmed herself down, regretting the incident entirely, and swear to herself to do better next time.

She suspected that Luke somehow knew of her quick fits of anger. Whether Chewie was reporting them, or Luke watched her through some Force trick he'd failed to mention, he seemed to be completely aware that his instructions were quickly forgotten on the job. Kess assumed that it was the reason for his relentless punishing.

Her thoughts defended him. He was no drill instructor. Somehow, with calm words and smiling urges, he managed to make her _want_ to succeed. He never raised his voice and never used harsh phrases. He never belittled her or humiliated her. Neither deliberately nor by accident, he never hurt her feelings in any way. And he never, ever made a motion to strike her.

She would study his expressions as he ran or as he talked, trying to get some idea of what was going through his mind besides what he was actually saying. Each curious incident left her with the urge to pull a quiet smile out of him, her usual reward to any success, and the desire for that reward grew like an addiction. Maybe, just maybe, Luke would smile at the new collection of lightsaber parts, or at a pair of dud sabers to practice with.

Less than thirty minutes later, with three plastic bags hanging from her fists, Kess led Artoo back out to the busy sidewalk ready to head back. The lunch Artoo picked out was variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, which would have been okay with Kess if she could recognize the food in the first place. Artoo seemed to know what he was doing and selected a half a dozen types of red and green roots, bulbs, and fruits.

Dodging bodies down the main street, Kess focused on the building that was their docking bay up several blocks. As her eyesight came back down to the sidewalk ahead, she noticed two bodies in white armor and carrying blasters. Stormtroopers!

Kess gulped. She reminded herself that she was undercover, she had her fake ID, she had her story. . .  All she had to do was zip by them just like everyone else was. Then she realized she was the only woman on the street with blonde hair that hung down her back. But then, she wasn't supposed to be from here in the first place. _Calm_, she told herself. _Don't panic._ She felt a twinge on the Force, and turned to the direction it came from. In a flash of red hair and wide eyes, a young woman appeared from the crowd and rammed Kess in the chest.

**BLAM**!

A tumble of bodies, fruit, and hardware parts went skittering across the sidewalk. Kess blinked from the fall, focusing on a girl no more than twenty years old whose long cherry tinted hair was in wilder disarray than Kess'.

The girl didn't look back at her, but past her to catch a glimpse of her pursuers. One hand closed around a crystal that fell out of Kess' bag, the other hand closed around something else, and she bounced back up to her feet, resuming her mad dash through the crowded sidewalk.

"Hey!" Kess complained to no avail. It was the crystal that would have made the oscillation for a lightsaber's blade. Kess had only found one within the frequency parameters she needed. 

The woman plowed through pedestrians until she noticed the stormtroopers that Kess had already seen, and the woman's path obliqued to cross the street. The stormtroopers followed as fast as their armor could let them run.

"Are you all right," asked a staticy male voice.

Kess looked up from her tangled position on the sidewalk. The gleaming white armor of another stormtrooper towered over her. His black and white gloved hand reached down to offer her help up.

It took a moment for Kess to register that a stormtrooper actually stopped to help her, but before her shock became obvious, four more stormtroopers burst out of the crowd, swarmed around her in a shuffle of armored boots, and kept chasing their prey down the street.

Kess looked up again, finding the stormtrooper still standing there, and took his gloved hand. "Aren't you going to help your pals?" she asked casually, brushing the wrinkles from her coveralls.

His electronic voice sounded like a recording, "On guard in case she doubles back." He had taken his rifle with both hands again and watched the chase from his tiptoes.

Kess knelt down to pick up her scattered belongings and watched the stormtroopers across the street tackle the young thing. The girl screamed and struggled.

"Imperial troops after a common thief?" Kess asked, just like a concerned citizen would. The local authorities should be handling a criminal of such a misdemeanor.

"She's an Imperial fugitive." The stormtrooper replied and then looked at Kess with his black goggles, "How did you know she was a thief?"

Kess didn't hesitate, "She stole something from me when we fell. I saw her pick something up. Only a thief would think to do that during an accident and manage to do it so smoothly."

After a moment, the trooper nodded, "What did she take? I'll get it back for you."

Kess shrugged and lied, "I'm not sure-"

The stormtrooper burst into a run across the street.

Kess looked. The girl had slipped from their grasp as was hightailing it passed Kess' hotel building. A half a dozen stormtroopers weaved through the crowd behind, yelling for people to move out of their way. When the commotion past, pedestrians went about their business and so did Kess.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

The elevator car reached her level and Kess reached into her pocket but it was empty. She searched other pockets. Nothing. Thinking back, she remembered accidentally pulling it out with her credits when she went shopping and had thrown it into the bag. She looked in the bag.

No card key.

She let out a frustrated sigh and pressed the access button. It buzzed as it depressed. In a few seconds, Han's voice came over the speaker sounding like an off duty stormtrooper, if there was such a thing. "Yeah?"

"Han, it's me, Kess. I can't find my card key." She knew she was going to catch hell for this.

The doors slid open. Han stood inside impatiently and disappointed like the father of a teenager, "You lost your card key?"

"It's probably still on the Falcon." Kess told him, hoping not to have to explain her adventures out in town.

Leia and Luke were sitting around the table with datapads and notebooks galore. Their furrowed brows and tired sighs were standard issue. Han sat back down with them to conclude the same scene Kess had been coming home to for a week now.

"Where's Chewie?" Solo grumbled.

Kess took a seat in the lowered sitting area. "Artoo said he went to go find a stiff drink and a game of sabaac. He took Threepio with him." Not watching the council team, she poured out the contents of the bag onto the flat cushioned footrest and started picking through brand new parts.

"Great." Leia grunted, "Just when we need Threepio he's not around."       

Luke leaned his elbows in on the table and returned to the conversation pre-Kess' arrival. "I can't think of any respectable reason why they would ask for it in the communiqué and not ask for it now. I have a feeling their going to wait until the treaty is settled and then demand it in the end."

Kess half-listened to the discussion, but went about her business getting the dud lightsaber schematic and pocket-sized tools from her room. She returned to the couch and hunched over the bag of parts. She began to peel the parts from their wrappings and lay them out in a pile of clean durasteel and carbon.

"I'd like to think they simply changed their mind." Han said hopefully and pessimistically at the same time.

Kess pulled out a screwdriver from a pocket and began with the first piece. She glanced at Luke and wondered if he would stop her or smile. Lost in the treaty discussion, he didn't seem to notice her activity. 

Leia recited an old transmission. "The Imperial Rule will flourish; if fulfilled the powers we lack; the Force itself will nourish; must sacrifice the Usak."

Luke rubbed his eyelids with thumb and forefinger and sighed. "It's definitely one of Kadaan's riddles."

Kess recognized the name of the Supreme Prophet that was said to have taken over the Empire after the fall of Emperor Palpatine. She thought about the riddle and picked apart the clues as she picked apart the pile of saber parts. Her mind worked on both puzzles as once.

Leia sighed, "Whatever it is, they want it pretty badly. I can't think of anything they would sacrifice an entire system for."

Luke leaned back, thinking. Maybe he just needed to look at the mystery from a different angle, a fresh mind. The first week of treaty negotiations had gone rocky, but we're still moving along. His brain had been swarming in rights, issues, laws, and other extremely detailed politics that he simply did not enjoy. With the treaty and training going on at the same time, he hadn't spent much time resting. He'd been working himself too hard and he scolded himself about it. He always worked too hard.

He watched Kess across the room, hunched over a small pile of electro-mechanics and squinting her eyes as she built a hand held puzzle. Braid-kinked hair fell over the olive drab shoulder of her coveralls. He could see the slightly darker square on her right collar where she usually wore the double blue dots on silver of a Lieutenant rank insignia. Silently, he thanked Ben for pointing out someone study the Force with. He finally had someone who could intelligently argue his decisions, counter balance his opinions, and comment on new aspects of the Force with a fresh mind.

_A fresh mind._

"Kess." He abruptly stood up and took a datapad with him as he crossed the room to her. "We need your opinion on something."

The startled woman sat up straight and watched him sit in the opposite chair. "Me?" she pointed her herself innocently.

Luke nodded, "The Frakkan's asked for something called an Usak in their message when they requested a treaty negotiation, but the Usak wasn't in the proposal when we got here and we're afraid it's going to come up later." He paused for a breath.

"And you can't figure out what it is." Kess finished for him, leaning forward to her parts again.

Luke smiled, "You've been paying attention."

"Kind of." She shrugged and rolled the hand held wad of durasteel in her hand, "But I don't understand most of the stuff you guys talk about."

"Do you think you can help us out with this Usak riddle?"

Kess picked up a metallic contraption and readied to lock a piece in place. "The riddle doesn't say enough. Obviously, the Imperials think they'll regain power if the Usak is sacrificed. But the Force itself will nourish: does that mean the Force will nourish the Usak, or the 'powers we lack'?"

"We intercepted that riddle along with an offer to this system that if the Frakkan government would find the Usak for the Empire, Kadaan would remove his forces from the system peacefully." Luke explained. 

Kess thumbed her chin. "But you know they don't have it because they asked you for it."

"We found a little from a Frakkan scripture but it's vague because its a direct translation," Luke raised the datapad to read. "The Usak determines fate from a different dimension. Once the Usak is shared, the fate is permanent in our dimension. The boundaries of the dimension are not defined, nor are the abilities of the Usak."

Kess narrowed her eyes in thought. "Is this other dimension the Force?"

He leaned back in the chair and rubbed his chin. "Could be," he said. He'd already thought of that.

Kess paused, met the Jedi's blue eyes, and blinked. "It's you."

Luke didn't even flinch. He'd thought of that too. "Basis?"

She returned her attentions to the contraption in her hand as she explained. "Imagine if you will, that the Force is simply another solid dimension. Some things and some people exist in either one or the other dimension, some exist in both. The Usak is a product of the other dimension (the Force), and is represented in this dimension (as a human), and the Empire is convinced that he will bring down the Empire once his powers are shared (taught to someone else). The Empire is surely aware by now that if anyone is going to spoil their party, you're gonna be in on it somehow." She shrugged again, glancing at Luke for his reaction, "Could be just a code to cover efforts meant to keep you from training any apprentices."

Han turned in his chair, "They should know we're not going to give them _you_."

Leia set down the datapad on the table, "But it's the size of bargaining chip the Empire would let the Frakkan's go peacefully for."

"Maybe they realized what they were asking for and took it out of the proposal knowing they wouldn't get away with it." Han muttered.

Luke's even stare never left Kess. The woman tried to go about her business, but visibly felt the weight of Luke's eyes. He waited for the other conversation to die before speaking. "That could mean that your life is in danger," he warned, trying to get a feel for her reaction. Would she face it boldly, or would she panic?

Kess shrugged again and picked up a hollow cylinder. "I expected that sort of thing came with the Jedi territory." Carefully, confidently, she screwed a metal flange over the top of the silver colored, hollow shaft. "Besides," and held up a distinctive lightsaber hilt, "that's what these are for."

Luke blinked hard in recognition and leaned forward to grab the saber hilt from her hand. With its side panel still open, it was obviously unfinished. There was no crystal or any other electronics yet to generate the blade. Still, Luke had not given her permission to build it. He hadn't even begun training her with his own saber. She was only a week into training and she had already designed and built her own. He looked at her in disappointment and shock.

Kess understood the look on his face. "It's a dud," she clarified loudly and began to pick up the mess from her little project. "I wouldn't build a real one until you said so," she assured impatiently.

That made Luke feel a little better. He looked at the pile of parts left on the footrest and found a dummy load jutting from the smaller parts. It would be installed just after the generator, ready to suck out all the searing power from the blade before it even formed. He reminded himself that, to her, it was an engineering experiment, not a power play. Had she planned to build a real saber, he would have been worried. Luke gave her back the hilt and muttered coldly. "Don't finish the dud until I say so either."

Kess had stood to throw away an armful of trash, but stopped and faced him. "Why not?" 

Luke leaned back and kept his expression firm. "You're not ready for it." He noted something in her voice, something in the emotions that radiated from her on the Force, she was hoping for a different reaction from him and didn't get it.

"I just want to see if it works!" She argued loudly, "Besides, I know how to handle a sword whether it's one handed or two handed." She stepped to the kitchen and threw away her trash.

Luke slowly climbed out of the chair. The delicate balance of almost parental responsibilities wavered in his mind. How do you maintain discipline, and still be a friend at the same time? He crossed his arms. Now was not the time to be friends. 

He squared his feet and looked at nothing in the air, "Are you questioning me?"

Kess let out a perturbed sigh, "No, _master_," but she was still just as pissed and wounded when she disappeared into her room.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Warm rain fell in sheets from ominous clouds, beating at the vegetation and turning the reddish sand to a dark burnt orange. The wetness of the rain made Kess want to take a shower outdoors rather than the dry hypo-shower in the suite. Her face winced with a smile as she, Chewie, and Artoo raced into the hotel to escape the pouring rain. As soon as they were inside, Chewie shook his fur violently, sending droplets onto the walls, the floor, and her.

She backed up with sarcastic humor, "Thanks, Chewie." 

Chewie stopped when he was finished and strolled to the elevator hooting a Wookiee laugh.

They said hello to the political party and disappeared into their respective rooms. Kess peeled off the wet jumpsuit and proceeded immediately into the shower to clean and dry off. Standing at the sink for routine hygiene, she pulled her tooth-sonic from the medicine cabinet and closed her lips around its small ergonomic speaker. In a pitch well beyond human perception, the yellow handled tool sent sound waves to crash against her teeth and literally dissolved the bacteria from the exposed enamel. With one hand she held the tooth-sonic to her mouth and let it do its duty, and with the other she reached for the small amber capsule of perfume. 

Next to the glass capsule half filled with the feminine scent, sat a slightly larger, dark blue capsule of masculine cologne. Grinning around the tooth-sonic, she took the cologne instead. She guiltily glanced back at the door to ensure she wouldn't be caught, and popped open the lid with her thumb. She closed her eyes and brought the capsule to her nose, drinking in the smell of Luke. After one long breath of it, she closed the lid, and put it away. 

She only allowed herself to let her imagination run wild while no one was looking. All through her after-shower routine, she looked through his side of the medicine cabinet and simply got nosy with his stuff. An electric razor sat next to a blue handled hairbrush. His white tooth-sonic needed a new powercell. He had no medicines; not even standard issue painkillers. She tried to put back everything in its place when she was done and calmed the giddy emotions as she dressed in her room. By the time she emerged for dinner, she was temporarily sober of her crush.

Chewie let out a small belch when he pushed away his empty plate (his third serving) and howled a casual request to Han.

The smuggler grinned, "A game sounds good. Does Her Highnessness wanna play?"

Leia tiredly shook her head, "I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted."

Han jerked his head at Luke, "What about you guys? You can't very well play Jedi in the rain."

Luke picked up his glass, "We'll play Jedi indoors. Sorry."

Within fifteen minutes, Leia had bid a tired goodnight, the droids were shut down and sitting lightless in the sitting area, and the smugglers faced each other at the table with a deck of cards and a betting monitor. 

As per his invitation, Kess followed the Jedi Master into his room as he muttered something about not wanting the game to interfere with the lesson. She sat down cross-legged on the bed and watched him casually pull the lightsaber off his belt to stand it upright on the desk. He turned the desk chair around, sat in it, and propped his feet on the bed next to her knee.

Her eyes drilled into the object on the desk, "When do I get to start practicing with a lightsaber?"

"Why?" It was his default response to nearly every question. He always wanted to know why she wanted to know.

She grinned and slashed an imaginary sword at him, "I want to start fencing again."

He took the saber off the desk and tossed it to her. "I thought fencing was getting boring?"

Kess caught it, rolled it over in her hand, "It'll be different with these." Her eyes looked up at him, "Can I turn it on?"

Luke paused, but nodded. The sound of its ignition seemed louder in the confines of his room. He watched the woman look the blade up and down with interest and wave it around a little in the air. Knowing that he still didn't feel she was ready for it, she turned it off before he took the chance to tell her to. She handed it politely back and remained silent as she waited for him to start the lesson.

Over the past weeks, he told her quiet stories of Jedi legends and made her study the Jedi history and other literature he had on hand. Now she could at least hold up a conversation with him about it. He told a little about his own training, about the Nightsisters and hundreds of Jedi records he found on Dalthomir, about the Siruvvi on Bakura, about Ben, about Master Yoda. . . . His stories all had a Force using lesson, or some Jedi involvement in them. He passed on as many experiences as he knew about, even being honest about some of his own mistakes, but not one of the stories, Kess noticed, ever touched on anything personal.

He rarely talked of friends, and when he did, they were about the same choice few. Han, Leia, and Chewie were the most common, and then others she had barely heard of before like the ex-General Lando Calrissian, and Captain Wedge Antilles, his second in command of Rogue group. Despite her questions, he wouldn't talk about Tatooine much. He wouldn't talk about his social life, his pre-training memories, or his family. He would barely answer her question, if at all, and shake his head claiming that it wasn't important.

Kess had started a mental list of the things that were either 'not important', 'a long story', or an 'I'll tell you when your ready'. The list was growing rapidly and Kess had a sick feeling in her stomach about all the stories he wasn't willing to tell.

Silence had fallen over her as she thought about it. Already expecting one of the three answers, she twirled her fingers into the dangling laces in her boots and said, "Tell me about Darth Vader."

Luke slid his hands behind his head and studied her, "What do you want to know?"

She inhaled at the new response, and exhaled to pick one of a hundred questions. "Did the info report about his death tell the whole truth?"

He didn't even blink. "No."

"Then what really happened? Why did Vader kill Emperor Palpatine?" She looked at him eagerly.

Luke swallowed, "I'll tell you when your ready."

She let out a frustrated sigh and let her eyes fall back onto black laces.

Suddenly, he pulled his feet from the bed and rested his elbows on his knees. "No, let me rephrase that. . .. I'll tell you when _I'm_ ready."

The corner of her lip curled, "When _your_ ready?"

Wise eyes met hers, "Do you like talking about the day Alderaan blew?"

Her heart sank as the reminder of her mother's death.

"Well, I don't like talking about Vader and the Emperor in the same way. That's all."

Kess nodded in understanding. 

Luke smiled wryly, "C'mon cheer up. I will tell you the whole story from beginning to end by the time your training's over. When we get back to Yavin 4, we'll start with the lightsabers. You can go ahead and finish the one you've started."

She wasn't sarcastic, simply confused, "I thought I wasn't ready for it?"

"Make it a dud and just don't turn it on. I'm no stranger to building electronic prototypes and know how difficult it is to stop in the middle and come back to it later. As long as you don't use it yet, I don't see any reason for you not to finish it."

She gave him a thankful smile.

"Now," he twirled a finger in the air, "sense the room."

She obediently closed her eyes and straightened her back. Concentrating, she could feel the power of the conduits in he walls and the Force sluggishly flow through inanimate objects: the bed, the chair, the comm terminal. Her mind touched easily on every major object. 

Luke concentrated to monitor her progress. "You missed something." 

Kess started another round: the bed, pillows, blankets. She identified the 'Force print' of the chair, the desk, the comm terminal, the lightsaber in his hand. . ..

With his eyes still closed, he grinned, "Why aren't you sensing me?"

Kess smiled wide without opening her eyes. "I am." She pointed at him with an index finger. "You're right there."

Luke grinned, "There's more to a person than their location."

Her awareness shyly moved toward the chair he sat in and hovered outside his consciousness.

"It's not going to hurt, Kess," he assured as though her fears were ludicrous. "See what you can see."

Carefully, she sneaked into his white cloud-like Force print. She immediately felt the massive strength of his peace. She could smell him, feel him, like she had climbed right inside his chest and cuddled there. She tried not to like it.

With his elbows still leaning on his knees, his blue eyes opened to watch her expression. He'd never done this before, but it was the best way he could think of to get her started on sensing the complexity of people, and he was about the best guinea pig for it despite the unavoidable intimacy of the exercise. "Now sense my emotions," he instructed. 

She passed though the blur of rapid thought process and found the hazy clouds of emotions. Her mind's eye translated his feelings into a series of colors she could envision. A pastel rainbow streaked into swirls. On the surface was a thick layer of yellow-tinged peace. She concentrated where the yellow was darkest and recognized it as contentment.

His tone was a soft challenge, "Go as deep as you can." It was easier to tell how strong she was by the amateur prodding. She wasn't going to be any super hero, but she was stronger than he originally assessed.

Her awareness dipped into the yellow-white layer and saw in her mind's eye, that the colors were slightly richer underneath. She spoke softly as she traveled through the pale rainbow. "Green is anger." The green was about as white as his lightsaber blade. She quickly disregarded any fear of his 'third degree'. 

"Blue is hate," there was hardly any blue. "Purple is," she had to move her thoughts a little closer, "fear?"

"Mm hmm." He had closed his eyes again to monitor her and make sure she didn't travel any farther than he wanted, though he wasn't sure what emotions he would have hid from her.

"Red." She saw the red was richer in color than the others so far, but its edges were more defined, like the cloud was encased in a bubble. She didn't recognize it because of the invisible barrier. "What's red?"

"Love," he said soberly without looking at her. "Go on."

She paused, but moved on, "Orange is happiness, and yellow. . . contentment."

"Now, white and black."

She passed back up through the pale yellow of his contented peace. It might as well have been white. "White is peace, I guess. . . I don't see any black." Her consciousness retreated and she opened her own eyes.

His eyes opened to her. "Black is passion," he explained, "white is peace." His hands pretended to weigh the two in the air. "The dark side and the light side."

Her chin rose, "Ah ha. But then why isn't passion, really dark red?"

He grinned recognizing one of his own original questions, "Because love isn't the only thing you can feel passionately. Peace and passion, like black and white, are the two ends of the spectrum. The colors you see are just different flavors of that spectrum. And since emotions are invisible, your brain translates your Force senses to see emotions as colors. Somehow, it manages to translate as the same colors to everyone that can sense it."

"Thus the universal term, dark an light Jedi."

"Exactly. Now," he narrowed his eyes at her. "It's my turn."

She leaned back a little, as if that would matter. "What?"

Luke had expected reluctance, that's one of the reasons he had her do it first. "I have to see what's in there," he pointed at her chest. "When this training is over, your emotions have to look like mine, and I can guarantee you that they don't right now."

She swallowed, "I can guarantee that too. So you don't need to see."

"Concentrate and watch. You'll see what you need to work on."

They both closed their eyes again. His Force awareness drifted confidently to her and she could almost physically feel his soul move through the skin of her chest. She inhaled and her posture shifted at the strange feeling. She envisioned her emotions with him, and though she enjoyed a colorful scene, she knew immediately that what they found was bad.

A thin sheet of pale pinkish purple settled on top of other emotions. It was the layer of newly practiced peace laced with a crush on her Master and hate over the electronics she was frustrated with. Luke pretended not to see it and moved deeper. 

All of the darker clouds had defined lines like long lost experiences stomped down far enough to be ignored. A soupy green anger churned in one corner and faded into a thick navy blue hate. Riding closer to the surface was magenta on its way to a very deep red. A pale orange rested over top of that and there was no yellow whatsoever. Deep down underneath it all was the blackened purple of fear fading into, and darkening, every other emotion she had.

Luke's force awareness retreated and he opened his eyes to look at her. It was worse than he feared. He had no knowledge of the causes of those emotions, but he did know that she would have to do something about every last one of them. "That fear is shadowing everything else."

She opened her eyes just to have them dart away.

"What are you so afraid of?" He asked gently.

She shrugged, "Oh, the usual stuff."

Luke leaned back in his chair, "There is no 'usual stuff'."

Kess fell back on the bed with deep sigh. Another interrogation. "The war, the training, this trip, the Empire," she listed her string of usual stuff. "My dad, nightmares, death and taxes…."

He felt that fear swell when she mentioned her father. "What are you afraid your father is going to do?"

Kess chuckled nervously, "He's gonna skin me alive and serve my flesh on a silver platter for Victory dinner."

He casually watched her fist clench, "Because of this training?"

She tried to remain casual, but the nerves rode deep in her voice. "I'll be able to save myself the worry. I'll just never show my ugly head back on Tatooine. If I never see him again, he can't touch me, right?"

"The only way to pacify fear is to face it," he told her.

She looked up like he was insane, "You're not gonna make me tell him?!"

"In due time," he assured. "That's way down the road. But if you fear your father, you will have to face your father, and all those other darker feelings, before you can be a Jedi."

Her head dropped back on the bed, "Is that gonna be my final exam?"

He grinned at the analogy, "We'll see."

She sat up again with a face of curiosity, "What was your final exam? What did you have to face?"

Luke swallowed without pulling his eyes from her. He said it quietly, "I had to face Darth Vader."

Kess saw the seriousness in his eyes and the trauma left in him from the event, and imagined having to face the sinister villain in person. She bit her lip in horror trying to think of a comparable final exam for herself.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Luke finished his shower, moved to the sink and mulled over Kess' training as he moved through the routine. Wrapped in clothe at his waist and leaning against the sink with a locked elbow, he pulled his tooth sonic from the cabinet and did a double-take. 

His eyes looked at the contents, his breath caught for a pause, and then he sighed it out with a wince of disbelief. 

He shoved the tooth sonic in his mouth with one hand and put all his stuff back where it was supposed to be with the other. His eyes narrowed at the reality as he did so. It didn't matter to him where the stuff was sitting in the cabinet. What mattered was that she was bothering to mess with it in the first place. Was she just a slob or was she actually perusing his things? He picked up the cologne capsule and looked at it. He shook it. It was empty.

His eyes died a little. Then he slapped the capsule back into the cabinet. _My apprentice has a crush on me_, he thought with mild bafflement, _and it's getting worse._

He knew the best thing to do was to address it up front. He should state it out in the open- call her on the carpet about it military style. He imagined making her stand at attention and using his rank and Jediship to convince her into never giving him a second glance again. He'd considered that on the trip over, but was reluctant to follow through because. . .  

He slowly closed the cabinet, considering this.

Because. . .  

He focused on his own face in the mirror and the corner of his mouth curled with the strange wonder.

Because he kind of liked it.

Luke's eyes fell closed and his head drooped slowly from his shoulders as if someone had just given him the worst of news, but his mouth smiled with embarrassment and incredulity about it.

Seconds later, wearing only a pair of white pajama pants, he sat in the chair in his room with his elbows on his knees and rubbing the weariness from his face. He could hear the noises of Threepio shutting down the lights and power from the main room. Leia's voice muffled off into bed. Luke just scratched a new knot of hair behind his ear and rubbed the back of his hand against his mouth to mutter. "Ben, why did you have to pick her?"

He realized that he had expectations about training apprentices. He expected a close friend out of it at best. He expected a teammate or a sidekick, at least for a while, and it didn't phase him that she was female. That didn't change anything to him, not at first. 

It was that she was _acting_ like a female that changed everything. Like the way she'd blow up at the little things like Leia did, or the inadvertent pouts before the morning run, or the way her brown eyes would light up when he gave her a grin. . . .

Luke inhaled sharply and let the sigh out his nose. He pushed against his knees to get to a stand. He pulled a datapad off the desk and browsed through the desk drawers to find an empty datacard. He found one, grabbed a cipher stick, and fell onto the bed. 

First, he put the card on his knee to write out a title. He chewed his tongue in thought and then said it as he wrote the first thing that came to mind. "What not to do while training a Jedi Apprentice," and proceeded to jot notes about things that were working, and things that weren't.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

A lamp hanging from above bathed the round table in a soft white light. Those hanging lamps made up most of the lighting in the restaurant's dining room, giving the place a dark, low ceiling appearance. Bright silverware and crystal goblets tinkled like the soft singing of crickets. In the far corner, a pair of yellow skinned humanoids played bright romantic music from a stringed instrument and a wooden flute.

Kess had ordered a delicate sauté of vegetables. Having liked Artoo's choice of lunch weeks before, she figured she would eat the local cuisine while she was still here. Her gold trimmed plate was nearly clean when their talk of the good old days died into a hush. With a twinkle in his brown eyes, Solo leaned over to his wife's ear and asked her to dance.

Luke shifted uncomfortably in his seat after the two had departed. He watched them go with jealous eyes but a gentle smile snuck across his lips when they had reached the dance floor and began to sway.

"You look envious," Kess teased.

Luke blinked and leaned over his dish for his glass. He shrugged, "I don't know what you mean."

Kess giggled at him, "C'mon, Luke. Don't lie to your own apprentice." She saw his eyes smile in bashful guilt. "Don't you have someone waiting for you on Yavin 4?" She grinned at him, "You know, the Knight with a mate on every system?"

He folded his arms on the table and pushed away his empty dish. "If that's why you're training, I'm afraid you're going to be gravely disappointed. The hero doesn't always get the girl." He chuckled deeply, "Or, in your case, the guy." His chuckle faded. He glanced out to Han and Leia and looked back at his glass, "The answer is no," he said soberly, "to both questions. I. . . really don't have time for that sort of thing."

"And treaty Counselors and Generals do?" Kess motioned to the lovebirds cuddling on the dance floor. She would have let it drop but that last comment was a lame excuse. She looked at him with a sarcastic grin. "If you really wanted to, I'm sure you could schedule somebody in."

Luke smiled but didn't respond. He hoped that if he stopped responding, she would drop the subject. Talk of personal relationships was never a comfortable subject for him, especially with such a lack of experience in them. Not many women he dealt with on a regular basis actually interested him, and those that did either didn't like him, or were scared of him because he was a Jedi. 

There's still hope though. Maybe after the training was all over, and the training itself didn't make Kesselia dislike him as well. . .  Luke smiled at his own thoughts. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it. He sipped the sweet wine.

The silence that fell on the table sent Kess in her own swirl of thoughts. She stared at the red wine in her own glass and suddenly asked, "You're allowed to, aren't you?"

Luke licked his lips of the drink, "Allowed to what?"

She shifted and shrugged, "You know. . . see people."

He raised his chin in thought, looking for the right words. . . looking for any words.

"I mean-" Kess leaned in and lowered her voice as though it were a forbidden subject. Luke curiously met her nervous eyes, wondering precisely what that forbidden subject was. "All that stuff about no emotion and no passion," she asked shyly, "that doesn't mean you can't. . . _y'know_" She motioned with her hand, trying to politely get her point across.

Luke's eyes widened and he forced himself to blink. His lips parted in embarrassed shock. He had figured the question would come up eventually, but not so soon. It was a subject he himself had not yet uncovered traditional practices. Was there some unwritten set of rules for a Jedi's mating rituals? Were Jedi Knights doomed to celibacy? 

He had wondered before, but he didn't know. He found no records, no hints, and received no advice of such nature during visits from a glowing Obi Wan Kenobi. Until now, Luke had no pressing circumstances that gave him the _need_ to know. With Jedi meditation tricks to calm animal instincts, and nobody around to catch his eye, he really had no desire to figure it out on his own. 

Kess stared at her drink and began to pick apart he subject logically, obviously more comfortable talking about it than he was. Without a touch of modesty in her tone, she continued, "Don't take it personally. I'm asking you because there is no one else to ask." She looked back at her drink. "And if you _can_, but can't use passion, wouldn't it get boring? And if you _can_ use passion, wouldn't every Jedi in the neighborhood hear you?" She finally looked at him, "A lot of this just doesn't add up. Was there anything in the records you found on Dalthomir?"

Her string of private questions left Luke in a stunned state of discomfort. He swallowed dryly and cleared his throat. "I haven't found anything on that subject," he admitted. "But I. . . I've only been through about thirty percent of the records. And I really wasn't looking for anything," he cleared his throat again, "of that nature." His eyes flicked about the objects on the table and rested on his wine glass. He picked it up and sucked in a shot full.

Kess suddenly noticed his shyness and giggled uncontrollably. Her experience on life in general, teamed up with her new Jedi senses had brought her to an unquestionable conclusion that was not only funny, but a little hard to believe. She didn't lower her voice and didn't stop grinning, "Am I to understand that the _subject_ hasn't come _up_ since you started your own Jedi training?"

Luke's wine sputtered out of his mouth and he leaned over the table trying to get control of his flushing face and gasping lungs. In a rush of panic, he grabbed his napkin and blotted the wine from the tablecloth. He looked around nervously, checking for flashes of horror from other up scale diners that might have overheard. No one had looked up. No one seemed to notice the conversation or his clumsy failure at proper dining etiquette, but that didn't make him feel much better. 

Kess tried to hide a red faced giggle. As soon as she calmed her breathing enough to speak, she snickered the words, "Three, two. Your serve again."

Luke folded his hands in front of his face. He blinked again, one long, slow, thoughtful blink, and set his jaw. His voice came out on the nervous side of a grin, "Do you have any pressing engagements that requires this information right away?"

She propped her elbow on the table and faced him boldly, "You mean, do I have a boyfriend?"

He shrugged, "A boyfriend, suitor, mate. . . whichever term you prefer."

She eyed him with a knowing smile and then shook her head, "No, I don't. . . but I don't plan on being single forever either."

Luke almost smiled, "Well, plan on it for now. I will fully brief you before the need arises. All right?" When he saw her start to smile again, he closed his eyes. _Bad choice of words._

Her voice dipped with comical insinuation. "My, that sounds like it's going be an interesting lesson." Kess started laughing at him and swallowed the last of her wine. With a twinkle in her brown eyes, she leaned in and lowered her voice to nearly a whisper. "I hope you don't think I'm going come and grovel for your permission every time I plan to go romping." 

Luke rubbed his forehead and shook his blushing face, "No! Please don't." He smiled and then shook his head again, "Just- don't do anything until we talk it over. That's all I'm saying." His own composure melted into an unbelieving chuckle.

The young woman tittered and gave him a very teasing, "Yes, Master."

Luke shook his head again, and finally laughed into his glass of wine.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Daitahn stood aside of the business as usual activity on the bridge of the Imperial Star Destroyer Tarkin. His formal Frakkan uniform was just a shade lighter gray than the officers on deck, causing him to nearly blend in. However, he did not carry the heavy weight of blue or even red rectangular insignia of an Imperial officer, but Daitahn actually felt a little safer about that.

A Lieutenant Commander approached. His somewhat young face was stiff and expressionless having his emotions completely trained out of him. "The Admiral is ready to see you now."

Daitahn's lip twitched. Setting his shoulders back, he marched into the ready room and stood dead center of the empty floor in front of the desk. Knowing that Admiral Cheenan would subconsciously respect him more for it, he carried an almost military air in his mannerisms.

The Admiral leaned over the report on his desk and ordered out the guards with a single wave of his hand. When the door sighed closed, Cheenan raised his gaze to stare down Daitahn. "According to this report, you have very weak leads in identifying the Usak."

Daitahn nodded, "Yes, sir. That is true."

"Why don't I believe you?" the Captain spat out. "Where is Governor Levilot?"

Daitahn inhaled through his nostrils, "He is personally tending to a business arrangement. We maintain and honorable society of free enterprise on Frakkan, however, there are some disagreements that require governmental influence."

A frown passed across the Admiral's lips, but suddenly, he smiled. "Well, what better an opportunity to flex some Imperial muscle. . .. You will take me to him and I will assist his efforts to solve the dilemma."

"With all due respect, Admiral." He paused as the man rose from his chair and confidently stepped forward. "The Empire has given the Regional Governors influence of their territories. Governor Levilot is fully prepared to bring the case to Imperial levels should the need arise. It is nothing that an Imperial Captain need spend his precious time on such an insignificant quarrel."

Admiral Cheenan lowered his tone, "You will take me to Governor Levilot. . .. and I will decide for myself if the matter requires Imperial intervention."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

She collapsed on the sand, heaving for fresh air in her lungs. The sand felt good in her hair, though it was extremely fine and soft, much different from the gritty ground rock was at home with on Tatooine. Luke calmly sat down beside her, barely out of breath, and crossed his ankles pointing toward the foamy waves. He locked his elbows, setting his hands in the sand behind him and stretched the muscles in his neck. She looked up at him from her limp position and watched him gaze out at the ocean as he spoke. "Apparently fencing hasn't given you enough exercise. You're going to need to be in shape to keep functioning properly, then you can enhance it with your skills." He didn't look at her as he sat up straight and folded his legs.

"Is that the only reason?" She breathed, "Just so you have more to work with?"

Luke turned to look at her, "No. Aerobics serves another purpose, it expends dark energies." 

Kess snarled at the archaic term, "How does it do that?" Slowly she sat up, forcing her breathing to slow.

"Think about it?" he said lightly. "When you are angry at someone, what is the instinctive thing to do?"

"Beat them up."

Luke shrugged. "Okay, beat them up, beat something up, exert a lot of pent up, dark energy. Even if you don't take your frustrations out on what's really frustrating you, getting enough exercise to break a heavy sweat melts the frustration away. It enables you to think clearly."

Kess brought in her knees in a loose hug, still softly panting, "So, you go out on a run every time you're pissed off?"

He let a smile creep to his lips for a moment. "No, you just run every day so that, every day, you can start with a fresh attitude and clear mind." He looked out over the ocean. "You can run, or practice with a remote and lightsaber, or even dance. In the end, you will have spent your dark energies and can concentrate on peace."

She looked out at the ocean and took a long deep sigh to catch her breath. "All I'm concentrating on is oxygen."

"Meditate," he ordered easily as he watched the waves.

She rolled her head, "Awe man."

"Clear you mind," he repeated insistently. "There is no emotion, there is peace. Close your eyes and feel nothing."

Kess obliged, not sure if she could accomplish the task today. She couldn't think of nothing because she would still be thinking that she was thinking of nothing. But still, as a good little apprentice, she thought about thinking of nothing. She breathed a smile, "Man, this is really hard to do."

Luke spoke quietly, as he always did when he ordered a meditation. "There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no death, there is the Force.…" His voice trailed off as the illogic of it began to matter less and less, and the absurd sounding words faded into an ultimate wisdom. 

Her mind went slowly, completely blank, and as though her closed eyes peeled open, a foggy view of a bright, sunlit scene appeared in her mind. . . like a dream. She heard nothing. She saw an auburn background and the fuzzy features of Luke's face with his eyes closed, his mouth pressed against hers. . ..

Kess suddenly gasped and her real eyelids flung open. "What was that?"

He'd never felt the pinprick black hole in the Force from this angle, but he was familiar with what it meant. Half his mouth grinned, "I think you just had a vision." 

Her eyes flashed to him and seeing his knowing grin (sitting several feet away) she realized that he had nothing to do with the vision except that he simply knew she had one. 

He explained the concept. "The Force can peal away to show you the past or a possible future, depending on what you need to see."

She quickly pulled herself to her feet and brushed the sand from her pants. "I'm not sure I like this ability." She chuckled uncomfortably at the ground. "It spoils the surprise."

Luke was only slightly concerned. He stood up and faced her, blocking her inherent path back to the courtyard. He grinned, knowing her fear better than she realized. "What did you see?"

"Nothing important." She inserted too quickly. "My mind's playing tricks on me. I don't think it was any vision." 

Luke crossed is arms at his chest. "What did you see?"

When he asked questions, he demanded answers. Kess lately disregarded most attempts to avoid to answering. But this was different. This was very different. What would he think? What would he do? She shifted her weight as her eyes darted about. With a rush of borrowed confidence, she raised her chin, "I saw somebody kissing me."

Luke raised an eyebrow and his grin faded. It was obviously not what he expected, and apparently not something he really liked. With a face more of concern than curiosity, he asked, "Who?"

Kess met his gaze, trying to tell whether he really cared and therefore if she should really tell him. She couldn't tell, but that didn't matter, because she couldn't lie anyway. She watched his face for reaction and said it flatly, "It was you."

Luke took one rocking step backward with widened eyes, but his expression softened again. Always emotion is the future, Master Yoda had said. He decided not to mention that vague statement now. "Those visions can show a future of many facets." He turned away, using his best teacher tone. "And the futures you will see are but one path, and _not_ set in stone."

Kess watched him. He was uncomfortable at dinner. He was quickly turning away now. Something in her instincts told her that the teacher was reminding himself he was a teacher. She suddenly felt like a predator at the Mash Pit, encouraged by Kaila and other cooing girlfriends. She grinned brightly, "Does that mean your not going to kiss me?"

Her flirtatious voice sang through the morning breeze. With a difficult sigh, Luke put his hands in his pockets and squared his shoulders as he turned to her. Forcing his face to a near blank expression, he faced her squarely. "I wasn't planning on it."

Kess tilted her head aside trying to maintain the carefree grin, and then turned her head entirely, trying hide the disappointment and the embarrassment that washed across her face. Such a question was unlike her, and now she regretted it. She had to stop hanging out with Kaila so much.

Luke stepped forward, stressing the words. "You're my apprentice. I couldn't even if I wanted to." As if that explained everything.

Her eyes flicked back to his, "Shouldn't."

Luke nodded politely and shrugged, "Okay, I shouldn't even if I wanted to." He looked at her almost sympathetically. He didn't want to hurt her feelings, or insult her, or lead her on, but he knew exactly what was going on in her mind and tried to figure out a way just to make it stop. 

Kess searched his expression for the truth. She'd hit a cord, she knew, but she was bedazzled precisely what chord it might have been. Borrowing Kaila's confidence again, she gave him an open mouth smile with a twinkle in her brown eyes that would shame Coruscant prostitute. "Do you want to?"

Luke couldn't help his embarrassed chuckle. He closed his eyes and broke the stare before he really did kiss her. Staring out at the ocean, still trying to wipe the smirk from his face, he finally laid down the law. "I'm not going to answer that. I am your Master, and you are my Apprentice, and we are not going to finish this conversation until your training is over."

Folding her arms at her chest, she asked warily, "How long is this training going to take, anyway?"

Luke drew up a short breath. His formal training took only weeks, but he had self-studied new and important details for years after that. Even now he found new and creative ways to use the Force to his advantage. Namely, learning the true feelings from a particular girl. . . He let out a quick sigh, cursing his mind for wandering off. Depending on how fast she learned, her training could take months, even years, but he was afraid to tell her the uncertain truth about the time frame. "Until you're done." He said simply at the sand beneath his feet.

Turning his back to her, he began the long stroll back to the hotel. He let out another sigh and heard her slowly catch up to walk beside him. Her flirtatiousness had melted into the sand at her feet, her confidence skewed towards sarcasm, "I didn't mean to insult you, _Master_."

Luke recognized the negative effects already in her voice. Precisely the anomaly he tried to avoid by ordering the subject dropped. He abruptly stopped in his tracks and looked her directly in the eye. Impatience was beginning to ride in his own tone. "Don't guess what you don't know. You didn't insult me and I'm not disappointed with you. I just want you to _drop the subject_. The last thing the New Alliance needs is they're two only Jedi fighting like Han and Leia."

Kess raised an eyebrow at him; slightly disturbed by the outburst, but more curious at his analogy. She still wanted verification for her suspicions. "Why not just tell me?"

Luke caught himself and briefly closed his eyes. "Whether I want to or not has nothing to do with how drastic the outcome could get. Either answer could spin your emotions into an uproar. You're my first Apprentice and I don't want to risk the hassle. So you're just going to have to stay in suspense until you finish your training." He grinned irony, "A Jedi craves enlightenment and knowledge. It seems enlightenment will be your reward to graduating."

Kess laughed in disbelief and dug her on hands in the pockets of her baggy clothes. She turned to the hotel and resumed the stroll, shaking her head of the small hurricane of mixed emotions. "I was right," she said heavily without looking at him. "You are crazy."

Luke's smile widened a little, but he didn't look at her, "And you, my dear, soon-to-be Jedi Lendra, are going to believe that until you finally start practicing all that I've been trying to teach you."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Formally clad bodies poured out of the conference room for a long needed break. It had been a productive yet tedious day. The Frakkan government and the New Alliance government had finally come to an agreement on the rights of free enterprise in conjunction with the standing rights of free enterprise already in full activation within New Alliance borders. After a month full of negotiations, it was the last issue between them to settle the post severance treaty.

In the clean, carpeted hallway, Han stretched his back. He'd been sitting in that same chair for weeks, mulling over details that did not interest him whatsoever. The gray and pale blue uniforms of Ambassador Shuley, Governor Levilot, and several other diplomats and assistants, quickly left the room and moved down the hall to the Governor's temporary private office, as usual.

Hurriedly, Leia followed them, but passed he Frakkan crowd when they paused to open the door. She continued to the room where she could send Mon Mothma a report of good news from a comm desk on the Governor's supposedly secure channel.

Luke rubbed his eyes and strolled tiredly in the opposite direction. Han followed him to the private office given to them for breaks and secluded conversation. The door hissed shut behind him at his command, and, ignoring Luke, flopped back into a stiff futon chair.

Thoughtfully, Luke continued his stroll to the giant window. He looked over the jutting buildings of the city without looking at them, without looking at anything. He shoved his fists into his front pockets and sighed worriedly through his nose.

Han raised his head to look at Luke's back, then leaned forward in the chair, propping his elbow on his knees. "What's the matter, kid?" He smiled, realizing that it was probably a stupid question. "That Lieutenant giving you a run for the money?"

Somewhere within Luke's faraway stare, he nodded, "Something like that." He stood silent for a few seconds more and yanked his eyes from the window. "It's getting to the point where I've started a new set of notes: 'What not to do while training a Jedi Apprentice.'"

Han grinned, "Couldn't you reword that? 'What not to do while training a _female_ Jedi Apprentice'?"

Luke suddenly turned to him like he was ready to vent complaints to someone who might understand, a very non-Luke kind of thing to do. "You know what she asked me last week at dinner?" His voice was still filled with disbelief. "She asked me if the Jedi are allowed to have sex!"

Han rolled back and laughed out loud. Kess asking about it was not surprising. It was Luke's reaction that was so funny. Han stood and approached him with smiling eyes, "Well, are you?"

Luke scolded Han with a single look, but didn't answer the question.

Han crossed his arms, "So, what did you tell her?"

Slightly embarrassed, even with Han, he turned back to the window, "I. . . told her I haven't done much research in that area."

The smuggler leaned against the window with laughing eyes, "You liar. You haven't done _any_ research in that area."

Luke shrugged in silent admittance. "I'll see what I can find in the records and cover it later. . .. Much later."

Han's voice lowered evilly, "And how well will you cover it?"

Luke gave him another perturbed look.

"C'mon, Luke. She's a good-looking woman, _your_ age, from _your_ home planet, and she fixes the ships _you_ fly. She was hand picked for this mission. _I_ certainly didn't ask for her, Leia never heard of her, and I doubt Admiral Drayson keeps tabs on more than a hundred Floor Supervisors that aren't in his command. And suddenly, this girl is the first Jedi Apprentice of the famed Luke Skywalker? Now look me in the eye and honestly tell me this was all just a big coincidence."

Luke glared at him, "Purely!"

Han folded his arms at his chest and stared down his nose at Luke, obviously not believing the kid's innocence. "You're aloud to be human, y'know." He finally said quietly.

Luke huffed and combed his hair with his fingers. "I knew about her before the trip, that is true. Ben pointed her out and I've been keeping an eye on her for about a year. But I didn't actually meet her until a week before we left." He shook his head, wondering why he was defending his Jedi decisions against a man who, not so long ago, called it 'a bunch of weird tricks and nonsense'. He spoke quietly, not really caring anymore if Han believed him or not. "This training is purely platonic, Han."

"I know that." He turned away and went back to the chair, "I'm just saying that it doesn't have to be." 

He watched the kid stare out the window again and knew by the look on his face that dedication and morality were fighting it out in the back of that blonde head. It had been eight years since he picked up the green farm boy and his hermit from the Mos Eisley Cantina, but Luke seemed to have aged twice that just by the weighted look on his shoulders.

_So what do you think of her, Han?_ The twinkle in the young blue eyes said it all that day. They were running with their tail between their legs from the Death Star with stolen plans and the Imperials close on their tail, and all this kid could think about was the girl.

_I'm tryin' not to, kid._

_Good._

Over the span of those eight years, Luke never hinted any animosity at Han for pursuing Leia and winning, regardless that they were siblings. Leia's marital fate was set before that fact was known. Luke had remained quiet; watched them fall in love; watched them fight. He was there when Han proposed. He was the best man at their wedding. The only thing he said that whole time, the only request (or maybe it was a warning) was, "Just don't let her down."

Luke had politely stepped aside, and stood alone for eight years, and Han couldn't help but feel a little guilty about it.

The door hissed open and Leia walked in, her shoulders tense under the white fabric of her dress. Concern had fallen hard on her face as her eyes found Luke's back. Both men turned to her and instantly knew something was wrong. 

Han's voice was rough as he leaned forward in his chair, "What's the matter?"

She didn't look at her husband, but stepped carefully to Luke. "I just spoke with Admiral Drayson," she spoke in nearly a whisper.

Luke's face-hardened.

"There is no indication of who requested her by name for this trip. . . and she never went through a security check."

Luke looked back out the window with a clenched jaw.

Han stood and hooked his thumbs in the back belt loops of his dress pants. "Did they check her service record?"

Leia nodded at the floor, "Scanned over it. There's nothing obvious. Drayson is initiating a security check now. He said he'll look deeper into her record personally, both civilian and military, and launch an investigation on who gave her the order to come with us." She glanced at Luke's back again. "A Repair Supervisor would not have access to initiate that order on her own," she assured quietly.

Luke's spoke in a low, stiff voice without turning. "Kess wouldn't have even if she could."

Han stepped back with a long blink. He was surprised that the two so quickly defended the nearly insubordinate Lieutenant and states the obvious. "What if she's not just a Repair Supervisor? What if she's in cahoots with Shuley and Levilot? What if she'd been trying to get into my critical systems just so she could bring them down?" He pointed roughly to his side, "That woman barely follows my orders, oh, but she certainly has succeeded in getting on your good side, _Master Luke!"_

Luke spun around and faced his brother in law. "A few minutes ago, you were trying to talk me into sleeping with her, and now your convinced she's a spy?"

Leia raised a single eyebrow at Han.

Han gave her a tiny shrug.

Luke ignored the exchange, stepped forward, and continued to raise his voice, "If you would let her do her job every once in a blue moon, maybe she wouldn't get so close to insubordination. It would certainly make my training her a hell of a lot easier. You've been after her dots since the minute we hit hyperspace!"

Han voice was just a touch calmer than Luke's, but stood his ground in the same forward attack position, "And a few minutes ago you were swearing a 'purely platonic' training and now your defending her, without proof, like some protective mate. The series of events and the collection of evidence do not clear her name."

Luke eyes blazed, but he's lowered his voice into stiff control. "She is not an Imperial."

Han's voice lowered as well, "I'm not convinced."

Leia put her hands on the stiff forearms in front of her, one hand each, and used the soft but commanding voice that she so often used in her job. "We won't know anything until the security check comes through and we are not going to say or do anything until we know. It should be complete by the time we return to Yavin. We've settled all post severance issues, and it shouldn't be long to decide how we're going release the Frakkan's from the Empire."

"Great," Han muttered sarcastically, finally pulling away from the stare down with Luke. "Now all we have to do is argue with them about this Usak thingamabob." 

He stepped tiredly away and turned his back to them both. He wanted to go home, have a candlelit dinner with Leia, maybe take Luke out to the local pub and try to talk him into acting like a mortal male for once. Training or no training, the kid needed a good-

"The Empire will flourish, if given the powers we lack…." Luke voice sounded. The anger had faded dramatically into the tense clicking of pieces suddenly falling together. "Given the powers of more Sith?"

Leia raised wide eyes to him and responded with the same tone. "They want your apprentices before the training is finished so they can turn them."

"-turn them to the Dark Side." Han turned as said it with her, suddenly seeing the pieces as well. "That's something they would sacrifice an entire system for."

Luke gave Leia almost an evil glare in return. "But, Kess doesn't _know_." He almost pleaded as though he were hoping for someone in the room to verify that Kess had nothing to do with it. 

Leia touched his arm again. "We aren't going to do anything until we get more information, all right? I'll bring it up in our afternoon session. Levilot has got to tell us what it is if he wants us to hand it over. And if it is her then-"

Luke dropped his cold eyes to meet Leia's, "We are not trading my apprentice for a propulsion industry."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"Who exactly is the Usak?" Leia asked curiously across the table less than ten minutes later. Wording the question that way admitted to the Frakkan's that the New Alliance had already figured out that the Usak was, in fact, a person.

Governor Levilot stiffened across the table but kept his gaze from flinching. "We're not sure. Only Supreme Prophet Kadaan can positively identify this Usak he wants, he is the one who prophesied it."

Han leaned forward in his chair, "If you can't figure out who it is, then how do you expect to trade the right person for your freedom?"

Levilot's eyes flicked to Luke, and seeing the Jedi still coldly staring at him from directly across the table, lowered his gaze to the datapad in his hand. "We have clues, a description. . . We've found a possible lead-"

"Who?" Leia's voice was more insistent.

Levilot's eyes moved to meet each of the Alliance diplomats in turn. Finally, with a polite smile, he leaned back in his chair, "My friends, it has been a long and productive day. We have submitted our request for the severance issues. . . the Usak among them, but before we proceed, I'd like your permission to close for the day so that your team and ours can review the new proposals." He paused as the trio across the table visible slumped at his request.

"I'd-" Levilot stopped, leaned forward, and let the diplomatic air fall from his expression and mannerisms. "I'd like to review my notes on the Usak before I give you my suspicions. I know little about Kadaan's request myself and, to be honest, I don't really care if Kadaan get her or not. The Usak is a product of Frakkan beliefs. His prophecy of a new Usak is completely against our beliefs simply because he isn't Frakkan. But it's the one way I can sever my system from the Empire with the least amount of bloodshed." 

Leia rubbed her forehead wearily. Luke stared at Levilot coldly, a dozen thoughts rolling though his mind at once. Han leaned back in the uncomfortable chair and draped his elbow across its arm with a tired sigh.

"I beg of you, let me review my notes before we address this issue. Jedi Skywalker," he held up a hand to Luke, "you would know if I had other intentions."

Luke paused for a moment, even though he'd been checking for deception all along, nodded to verify to Leia and Han that the Governor was, in fact, telling the truth. 

Leia nodded in return, "We will close for the day at your request, Governor. We will review the proposal and meet again in the morning. However, I would like to see all the information you have about the Usak and its characteristics."

Levilot bowed his head penitently. "I'll have them collected for you by morning."

Leia gave him a perfect smile, "With all due respect, Governor, it seems this mystery person may be the remaining link between our governments. I would appreciate seeing that information as soon as possible. By dinner time, perhaps?"

Levilot stood and smiled tightly, "Of course, Counselor."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

The video of the treaty room showed the New Alliance trio milling out to the hall. A single finger pushed the button that made the screen go blank. Admiral Cheenan sat comfortably in the Governor's office chair not fifty feet away from their meeting place. He ignored Vice Governor Daitahn sitting silently on the other side of the desk. They and two stormtroopers were all that occupied the office until the door hushed open.

The stiff face of Governor Levilot found the Imperial sitting in his chair and instantly knew that he was in trouble. He approached the desk without moving his knowing stare from Admiral and stood quietly until Shuley and the other aides filed in and closed the door.

"It seems, my dear Governor, that you have uncovered a most promising lead to the Usak." Admiral Cheenan looked at the man as though he were scolding a teenager.

"We don't know for sure-"

"That is not for you to decide, Governor!" The Admiral suddenly yelled. "You were ordered to report all possible leads, not negotiate a treaty until you confirmed one."

Levilot remained silent and looked at him humbly. In his mind, however, he simply waited for the Admiral to spend his temper tantrum.

The Admiral stood, his blue eyes flooded with anger, "I should have this entire city leveled. This gross insubordination is not tolerated in the Empire. His Excellency would blow this precious planet of yours to ion dust if he were still alive." His teeth seethed with saliva and the hate spewed from his mouth. "Your lack of loyalty is a disgrace."

Levilot would not back down, not for the Emperor and not for any one of a hundred of his Force using pupils. His voice was calm, "You forgiveness, Admiral. My station as a Governor is to rule and protect the people of my system. I was exploring the possibilities to find a plan with the least amount of bloodshed."

"To sever from the Empire."

Levilot motioned with sincerity. "Supreme Prophet Kadaan himself had offered it in return for his Usak. In that light, my actions should have been expected, if not pardonable altogether."

Cheenan lowered back into the chair, his lips drew into a thin line.

"My actions, in turn, have brought the possible Usak to this system. If you will allow me to continue, I will sacrifice the Usak to you in return for a peaceful severance. It is only a matter of time-"

"You do not have the luxury of time, Governor. Where is he?"

Levilot clasped his hands behind his back and felt the tense presence of a half a dozen diplomats and stormtroopers in the room, all holding their breath. "He is a she." Levilot admitted.

Cheenan's eyebrow rose, "A _woman_ will single-handedly bring down the Empire?" The human male supremacy of the Imperial government was no secret. Even so, Shuley crossed her arms as though Cheenan slapped her across the face. She remained silent, but her attitude was clear in her expression. It was because of the Imperial bigotry that it took her so long to take the office of Ambassador and she had simply had enough of the Admiral that fought her recent promotion.

Levilot would console Shuley later. Right now, he needed the Admiral on his side. "The woman will inevitably bear more Jedi children and strengthen Skywalker's position as Master."

Cheenan's face-hardened in worried confusion, "Skywalker is not a Jedi Master."

"Skywalker apparently has taken the woman on as his apprentice. Which is why we believe she is the Usak you are looking for."

"You fool!" Cheenan yelled. "We must take her before it's too late. Once she attains Jediship we are helpless. Her training must not be allowed to continue!"

Levilot held up a hand, "She won't leave the planet, Admiral." He tried to assure.

"You idiot!" Cheenan hissed. "How long has this training gone on?"

"We don't know-"

"I don't care about your treaty negotiations. I want the Usak removed from Skywalker's influence at once. I saw the look on his face, he already knows who it is and they don't plan on releasing her. He already knows!"

Levilot finally, tiredly, sat down in the guest chair. What Cheenan was saying was true, he was sure. Skywalker's cold stare across the table sent chills up his spine. "If you will permit me, Admiral, I would prefer Frakkan resources to perform the task at hand, in light of the lives at stake."

Admiral Cheenan paused. His voice was cold and quiet, "As you wish. If the Usak is not in my possession this time tomorrow, I will have my forces pluck her from this planet, and I don't care who or how many I kill in the process."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Luke hardly spoke during the short trip back from the treaty negotiations. Leia and Han watched him sympathetically, knowing how much the news weighed on his mind. They wished that he would speak, or yell, or joke, or vent, or anything. But he had walked silently to the speeder, sat staring out the window, and bowed his head in deep thought as he stood in the elevator. Suspicions bounced roughly through his mind and then known facts promptly bounced them back. He would shake his head and sigh heavily.

Leia wasn't too worried. She simply wished that there were something she could do to make him feel better. It wasn't the first time they had gotten only half the information about an issue that hit awfully close to home, but she knew that he'd grown attached to Kess and the hope of a fellow Jedi. 

The elevator door opened to the suite almost glowing with the brightness of midday. She went straight to the sitting area and plopped down wearily on the jasmine couch. Han followed her, laid down on his back, resting his head in her lap, and pretended not to notice the tension thick silence. Leia watched her brother slowly move to the dining table and start pulling at the buttons on his tunic. 

"Why her?" Luke suddenly blurted out, not turning to them.

Han opened his eyes and glanced at him, "Don't get so offended, Luke."

Luke shook his head and tossed the tunic across the iron railing of the sitting area. "No. Not 'Why does this always have to happen to me?'. What in the name of the Force would the Imperials want with her?" 

"She's your first apprentice," Leia offered. She combed her fingers into the hair at Han's temple. Her husband closed his eyes to enjoy the attention, both of them feeling a little better now that Luke was at least talking about it.

"I'll train others," Luke breathed, sitting down at the table still cluttered with datapads from the review over breakfast. "Why not just kill me instead? Then I couldn't train anybody?"

Han grinned without moving, "They already tried that."

Luke leaned his elbows in on the table with an admitting nod and fiddled with a datacard in front of him.

Han asked out loud, "Are you sure its a Force related thing?"

Leia let her head fall tiredly on the back of the couch, "One document said that it's a Sith prophecy, another spoke of different dimensions. . . It sounds Force related to me."

Luke quoted, "'The Empire will flourish, if given the powers we lack'. . .. If it is her, Kadaan wants to turn her to the dark side."

A silence fell over them. Without realizing it, all three minds remembered the black cape and helmet of a man who had been turned to the dark side. His deep, synthesized voice and his electronic breathing echoed in all three memories at once. 

Han tried to imagine Kess in the same outfit and toting the same red blade. He squinted, "She'd be an awfully short Darth Vader."

Leia cracked an ironic grin. Luke chuckled from the table. It was the first time any of the trio actually joked about the man that had inflicted so much pain, and the joke was only bittersweet at best. Silence fell again as Luke's chuckle faded and spoke with a faraway voice, "But she'd be a pretty one."

Han and Leia quickly looked at him. Luke had his head resting in his hand and was staring out the window with troubled eyes and a weary grin.

"Did it occur to you," Han blurted out, nearly sitting up, "that they just might be afraid she'll bear a bunch of your Jedi babies?"

Luke's smiling eyes went to Han. "I hate to break the news to you, _dad_. . . . Leia's just as capable of bearing Force strong children as Kess. So why isn't she the Usak?"

He saw Han look up to his wife and knew that the exchange of expressions about to take place was none of his business. Luke let eyes drift across the table and thought to himself, _What makes you think she's gonna bear my kids, anyway?_ He knew better than to ask the question out loud. _Besides, she's probably my other sister. . . or my aunt, or my niece, my cousin. . . ._

Leia spoke evenly, "Either she is the Usak, and she knows it, and she came to try and keep the treaty from happening to save her life. Or she is the Usak, and she doesn't know it, and we have another spy to fish out of Yavin 4. Or she's not the Usak, and they want my bracelet or something-"

"No, it's her. I know it." Luke muttered. "My life long lucky streak with women would be shattered if she weren't." Abruptly, he stood and walked towards the elevator.

Han stretched his neck to see Luke requesting a car. "Where are you going?"  

"I'm going to go teach my apprentice how to move things." He stepped into the open doors and faced them. "Like, locks on cell doors, a blaster that's out of reach, or the pepper, when everyone is too busy eating to pass it to her. . .." The doors closed in front of his face and the faint click sounded as the car released to carry him down.

Leia gave the smuggler a scolding look, "You were supposed to pretend not to notice."

His hand shot towards the table. "How can you not notice! A pretty Vader?! Gimme a break!"

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Luke heard her voice singing before he saw her. She lay on the floor of the bridge with her lower body jutting out of an open panel. Luke could barely make out the words, "Sitting on a speckled log, eating the most delicious bugs. Yum. Yum." He grinned as he approached and rapped hard on the metal wall with his knuckles.

"Argh!" Her head dipped out to look at him. "That's kinda loud in here." She was only half annoyed because she knew he did it on purpose. It was her punishment for not paying attention to the Force enough to notice that someone was approaching. She slid out and stood, wiping her filthy hands with an equally filthy rag. She noticed immediately that he'd shed the tunic of his uniform and loosened the top two buttons on his black shirt. Then she noticed the time. "Lunch break?"

Luke leaned his shoulder against the door jam and shook his head. "We quit early. So, we start early. Are you at a stopping place?" 

Kess nodded. She was always at a stopping point when Luke showed up. She wondered if he ever noticed.

He turned away to go find Chewie, "Get cleaned up."

Chewie and Han had slowly loosened their grip about the kind of repairs she did. So slowly, in fact, that Kess hardly noticed the way her orders advanced in difficulty and importance. Comparing the then and now: her first assignment was to clean the shower head, and now, a month later, Chewie gave her the bridge fuse box to repair and rewire. Not one repair even touched on the list she was given, but she would get there in about a standard year. 

It took only a few minutes for her to peel the coveralls from her hidden civvies, change into lighter shoes, and wash her hands of the grease. Working on a fuse box had not gotten her all that dirty, so she didn't mind training without showering first. Trotting happily down the ramp, she ripped the braids from their ties and proceeded to unravel her hair as she walked with Luke out of the docking bay. He watched her scrub her scalp with pink fingernails, shaking up the full head of hair and letting sand-colored locks fall down the back of a loose peach shirt.

During the several minutes of walking silently to the beach, Kess thought about the possibility of talking Luke into not training, just for one day. She hungered to see the man relax a little, or maybe even talk about something that didn't have to do with the Force. She slid her fingers into the front pockets of faded denim and grinned at him. "Have you guys ever heard of some people getting a day off? It's Saturday on Yavin 4 right now."

Luke responded like he really didn't care, "Is it? I hardly notice it's Saturday when I'm on Yavin." His boots sank into the sand as he stepped off the curb and onto the scarcely populated beach. The sunlight of midday sparkled on thousands of waves on the blue to purple ocean. He drank in the fresh sea air.

"Now, why doesn't that surprise me?" she said sarcastically, grinning at the sand. "We've been working non-stop for a month and nobody seems to have noticed but me." 

Luke stopped in his tracks, clasped his hands in front of him, and looked down to her. "You wanna day off?" he offered.

She passed a few steps and turned to him. "That would be nice." _It would be really nice to spend the whole afternoon with you without having to train._

He shrugged quickly, "Fine." He did an about-face and started walking back towards the hotel. He read her like a book, and was already grinning at himself when she stopped him.

"Wait!" Kess hopped towards him in mild panic. 

He stopped politely and slowly turned, "Yes?"

"Tomorrow," she said shyly.

Luke grinned at her, but shrugged again, "Okay, you can have tomorrow off." He turned to the ocean and strolled out towards the waterline. Several blue seagulls flew over them, cawing at each other. "What are you going to do on your day off?"

"I don't know." She walked next to him, turning as they reached the wet sand and strolled in front of crashing waves. "What are you going to do?"

"Try to figure out this treaty," he said casually.

"Did they ever ask for that Usak thingy?"

Luke glanced at her, "Yeah, but they never said what it was." He forced himself to look away. "Did you put anymore thought into it?"

She looked at him quizzically, "You already figured it out, didn't you?"

He grinned at her, "Very good." She had kept her mind open and sensed the deceit from his half-truth. He let his gaze drift down the beach, "We have an educated guess. That's all."

She hopped along waterline beside him, pulling her lips in for an exaggerated, "Hmm. . .. She bounced on her toes, her path slightly zigzagging, and cocked her head aside, "Is it. . . bigger than a bread box?"

Luke grinned wisely, "That depends on how big the bread box is."

She giggled at him, taking the comment as his polite way of avoiding the subject. He probably couldn't tell her the treaty details, and Kess wouldn't push a subject he couldn't discuss. She felt uncomfortable about it anyway. There was so much he wasn't willing to tell her, but she didn't want him to feel her discomfort about it, so she distracted her own emotions onto something else.

She stopped in her tracks and gave in to the urge of a burst of energy. She bolted for several meters, pounded her feet into the damp sand, and jumped. She pulled her knees in for a single cannonball flip and landed hard on the ground. As soon as she caught her balance, she arched her back and shot her arms into the air. "And the crowd goes wild!"

Luke smiled at her back as he watched the simple gymnastic feat from his casual stroll. She was prone to sudden bursts of happy energy; be it an aerial flip, a silly joke, or flirting with him regardless of his requests to the contrary. Everyday, he tried to bring her head out of childish clouds and make her realize how serious being a Jedi Knight was, but it was becoming more and more difficult to scold her for a quick burst of play. He was actually starting to enjoy it.

She turned to walk backwards and smiled, "Let's go for a swim."

"Do you know how to swim?" He didn't even want to imagine what she planned for them to clothe in for an impromptu dip in the ocean. 

She had slowed her walking backwards to let him catch up but remained in front of him as he reached her. Brown eyes twinkled up at him, "No, but you wouldn't let me drown, would you?"

"I guess you won't find that out until you start drowning." He was smiling warmly at her and that was only fueling the fire, but smiling never hurt anything, right? He thought again about talking to her seriously about all this flirting, but he just wasn't in the mood for it today.

"Awe, c'mon." She turned around and walked beside him again. "The Knight in shining armor not save a drowning damsel in distress?"

He watched down the beach, "You are a Jedi Apprentice, not a damsel in distress." And, you're the Usak. . . He touched on the Force enough to sense her disposition. An undertone of light flirting was the only deceit he found in her emotions. Kess was excited about starting training so early in the day and anxious to get started with the first lesson. She was oblivious of the treaty issue that so closely affected her. Whatever was going on, she was completely innocent of it.

"And you spoil all the fun," she complained lightly.

"This isn't supposed to be fun." Luke told her.

Kess smiled, "I know that." She hopped along the beach in front of him and did a quick cartwheel. "But it is anyway." Her brown eyes twinkled at him again, and she turned to walk ahead of him on the beach.

As he watched her step ahead of him, his eyes warmed at her. _ I wouldn't trade you for all the propulsion industry in the quadrant._ Suddenly, he stopped and closed his eyes. A quick meditation beat the wandering thoughts back under the rock from which they came. Deciding to get into the lesson before they wandered off again, he put his thoughts to a mugrat burrowed six feet under the sand and began to lift it out.

Kess stopped when she noticed that he hadn't continued. She turned to find him with his eyes closed and one hand hovering over the ground in front of him. A small spot of sand churned like a tiny geyser pushed from underneath, and slowly, a single blob of sand rose from the ground and hovered in the air. The clump wriggled until the sand sprinkled off a slick furred creature. It lowered to the ground gently and scurried away as soon as Luke released his invisible grip.

He slid his hands back into his pockets and closed the meter between them as she watched the animal run towards the dunes and dive headlong into the sand. "Force Telekinesis," he cocked his head aside. "It's part of the alter category."

She squinted at him, "Don't you have to know clairvoyance first?"

"You already know clairvoyance." He gave her a knowing grin and resumed the casual stroll. "Instead of knocking on the bathroom door like most people, you've been trying to sense me instead."

She bit her lip and guiltily followed.

Luke jerked his shoulder for her to hurry up, "C'mon. Let's move stuff."

Kess picked up on the concept quickly. She started out by flattening the ripples of sand in a circle a half a meter in diameter, one tiny hill at a time. Luke sat on the slope of a large dune and watched her, instructed her, and occasionally, even demonstrated. After mastering the art of moving sand, he put his lightsaber on the ground in front of her and had her move that around for a while. 

Then he told her to pick it up. After an hour of dropping the thing over and over again, she got to the point of being able to hand it back to him. He held out his hand as the hilt floated into his palm and he unknowingly rewarded her with a big fat smile.

Kess looked, not believing she was successful until she saw it with her own eyes, and shot her fists into the air. "Yes!"

Luke backed up to the dune again and sat, latching the saber back on his belt, "Now. Catch me a mugrat."

She whipped her hair behind her shoulder with the determination one derives from success. The peach collar of her shirt hung lopsided on her shoulders. As she concentrated to locate her first victim, Luke's gaze fell on the nape of her neck. 

"How do you get the sand out of their way?" She asked.

He ripped his eyes off her skin and instead stared at the ground, "You move the sand."

Kess' Force awareness sank into the sand until she found a dozen simple consciousness' burrowed underneath. She stepped towards the nearest, and scooped up the sleeping creature with imaginary hands. The mugrat squirmed out of her grasp in pure fear. She couldn't blame the poor thing. She'd be terrified too.

"It's okay, pal," she said softly, even though she knew the mugrat couldn't hear her. "I'm not going to hurt you." Somehow, the calming words managed to transmit to the awareness that actually moved the creature and the mugrat suddenly relaxed into a nervous patience. The maneuver was complex. She had to concentrate on moving the mugrat, calming the mugrat, and moving the sand out of the way of the mugrat, all at the same time. By the time the animal came through the top layer of sand, she had slipped on calming in, and, of course, forgot about putting Force barriers _around_ the fidgety rodent. 

As soon as its little beady eyes saw the daylight, it dashed right off of her disc-shaped Force attention. Her eyes went wide when the creature ran and, out of pure instinct, Kess ran after it. 

Her hands grabbed at the sand where the mugrat had been. It zipped a zigzag path up the firm slope of the eight-foot dune, stopping and starting again as if to tease its pursuer. It wisely led her to the crest of the dune and ran straight down the almost vertical cliff on the other side. 

Kess saw the eight-foot drop and tried to skid to a stop at the crest. Just before her inertia sent her into a tumbling roll down the scoop, she cursed herself for not figuring out the animals plan sooner. Part of the steep slope toppled with her, sending a bucket's worth of red sand to fall on top of her head. When she finally stopped rolling, she lay flat on her back and pounded the ground with her fists.

A tall figure appeared at the top of the crest and called down, "That isn't quite what I had in mind!" 

Kess burst into laughter, realizing that the scene must have looked like slapstick comedy to Luke. The sun hung in the sky behind him, giving his black uniform a golden aura. His hands were on his hips and one knee was bent for balance. She watched his chuckle grow into laughter and her memories took a snapshot of the Jedi Knight and king of the hill.

The crest of the dune suddenly gave way under his weight, his laughter came to a sudden silence and pounds of sand fell with him tumbling into the scoop. Luke was already laughing again by the time he stopped rolling. He sat adjacent to her deep in the freshly collapsed sand and leaned his back on the cliff to laugh hysterically.

Kess just watched him, giggling more that her Master was finally showing signs of mortality than anything else. She sat up to see him but otherwise didn't move. In due time she would try to catch another mugrat, but for now she was perfectly content to sit there and watch him actually laugh.

His laughter died naturally, drifting into a faraway stare into old and happy memories. "Biggs and I used to romp around the Dune Sea in buggies when I was a kid. . . . We'd limp home covered in sand from head to toe." He let out a distant chuckle until it faded into deeper memories and continued, "One time, we were barreling through the flat at top speed coming straight for a twelve foot scoop. And you couldn't tell by looking at straight on, but the scoop came up to about ninety degrees like this one." 

He leaned forward, finally looking at her with playful eyes. "I hit the scoop running it wide open and shot straight up in the air. . . and hung there for a full second. . . and then fell _backwards_. Biggs was behind me, and his buggy had a sun visor, so he couldn't see me in the air. Here he comes, tearing up the sand at full speed, until I plop down right in front of him, upside down. He hit me in the rear quarter panel, sending me spinning like a corkscrew, and he skids off sideways hitting the scoop like a brick wall. Half the crest came down on top of him. Aunt Beru blew a gasket when she saw me."

Kess was already beaming at the vision of two young and reckless farm boys in a harmless dune buggy accident. The she beamed even brighter when it hit her that Luke finally told her a story that had absolutely nothing to do with the Force.

Luke smiled at the long forgotten memory, but his smile faded into the same old stab of pain he felt when Biggs' X-wing blew up on his starboard flank. He swallowed dryly and looked up to see Kess still giggling. Golden hair shimmered in the sunlight, her cheeks were flushed with laughter, and rose-coral lips were peeled away with a smile. The old pain of losing his friend slowly melted away. _Biggs would've liked her._

Her clean voice broke through his thoughts, "How old were you?"

Luke lowered his gaze, "Oh, I don't know. Fifteen, I guess."

Her smile suddenly changed as she recognized the mannerisms of a green farm boy. She watched his eyes dart about and find her again. The smile had faded into a nervous grin like a teenager who was shy with his company. For a quick moment, she tried to sense the emotions he was radiating, but instead found her own bubbling crush. 

"Did you ever. . . ride in dune buggies?" he asked quietly, trying to change a subject that plagued his mind. 

Kess thought, and decided not to think. _Do it before you change your mind_. Before logic took over, before he got away and turned back into the Jedi Master, Kess quickly rolled up on her knees, rested her fists in the sand next to his leg, and kissed him.

She had moved so quickly that he barely had time to gasp before her lips touched his. Without opening her eyes or her mouth, she pressed her lips against his for several long seconds. Luke was holding his breath, motionless with shock. The warm tingle of attraction swelled in her chest and was replaced with elation when she realized that he wasn't pushing her away. . .

. . . but he wasn't reaching for her either.

She pulled slowly away and peeled her eyes open to find him sitting there with his eyes still closed, with the auburn sand dune behind him. It was the same sight she saw in her Force window vision a week before. His upper body had moved forward several degrees and he sat there for two full seconds completely flabbergasted. His lips parted to let out the pent up breath and ice blue eyes looked at her in paralyzed shock. 

"Why did you that?" he breathed.

Kess relaxed a little at not getting an angry response, but was still frozen in her own shock. "Because you weren't planning on it," she said voicelessly.

Luke paused; his eyes closed for a long blink, and he vigorously shook his head. He looked at her again, and started brushing the sand from his lap and quickly gave up. In a burst of energy, he stood and let the sand fall from him instead. "I think we're done training for today," he muttered stiffly.

Kess' heart sank. She climbed to her feet to find him looking down at her in thick disappointment. She dropped her gaze so she wouldn't have to see his. "I'm sorry."

He spoke in a tense voice, "I'm training you to be a Jedi Knight, not court you. I'm sorry if you got the wrong impression, but this isn't the kind of training I had in mind." He saw her look up with pained eyes. "Either you are going to drop the subject. . . or I'm going to cancel your training altogether." He stared her down long enough for her to realize how serious he was about it, and turn his back to her to walk back to the hotel.

"Luke, I'm sorry!" She pleaded as she followed him.

He walked quickly, watching his destination, "That's _Master_ Luke if you can't keep it straight. Or, if you can't manage to control yourself, you can just call me Commander. You need to have the utmost dedication to your training, not crumble to childish whims." 

Kess' defenses went up at the insult of his reactions, "You act like decked you!"

He stopped in his tracks and faced her, "It doesn't matter whether you kissed me or decked me, or stabbed me with my own lightsaber. What matters is that you lost control. No matter what happens or how you feel, you must always maintain control of your own actions. I have beat this subject into the ground and you still tossed logic aside in a matter of seconds!"

"Loosen up!" She yelled at him waving her hands in the air. "Sure you've got to maintain control in combat, or ever during work, but this is ridiculous! Falling in love, and especially sex, is all about losing control!"

He huffed through his nose, "My sex life is none of your business."

Kess fought the tears welling up in her eyes and hissed, "It was just a little peck!" 

Luke clenched his teeth and pointed back at the dune, "No, Kess. _That_ was a _mistake_!"

She backed up a step, clenching her teeth, "You're damned right it was." Tears squeezed out of the corners of her eyes and she quickly turned so he wouldn't see them. She rushed down the beach as fast as her legs could carry her, gaining as much distance from the man as possible. 

Luke let her go. For a long minute he stared at the space where she had been standing. He felt her crushed heart and stifled tears until she ran out to the street and faded into the masses on the sidewalk. He fell back into the slope of the dune behind him, and rested his elbows on his bent knees. He stared out at the ocean feeling his throat clench, dug his fingers into his bangs, and closed his eyes to sigh quickly. 

Then he sighed again. "Now what do I do, Ben?"

He shook his head, knowing Ben wasn't going to show on command. Luke swallowed hard, and thoughtfully, licked his lips.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Kess had only come to this pub twice. She didn't crave the excitement of the gambling tables, and most of her desire to drink until all hours were usually nipped in the bud at the thought of being picked up with invisible hands and dropped into cold crashing waves. Tomorrow morning, she would probably get dunked. She didn't want to imagine Luke's reaction at zero four hundred when he learned that his apprentice had a ripe hangover. 

"Well, running didn't work," she grumbled into her drink. "I'm venting my passions the standard human way." She giggled as herself, "Us mere mortals-" Her voice trailed off as the fleeting thought passed too quickly before she could finish her sentence. 

She tipped the glass to let the final sip dribble into her mouth and slammed it on the bar. "I guess that's what I get for falling for some omnipotent hero." She gazed sluggishly at the empty glass until a hand pulled it away and replaced it with a full one. Dark blue swirls poisoned the murky white milk into a concoction that would make a Bothan lose all its hair.

_Was that my sixth? Or my seventh? Wait. . . I didn't order another drink._

She raised an eyebrow at the bartender. He casually pointed to one of the gambling tables behind her. "The gentleman in the cape has paid for another."

Kess slowly turned on her stool. Four gambling tables were lightly crowded with Frakkans and other various breeds. Through the smoky air, she immediately saw a dark skinned man with a dashing white smile and purple cape salute her with two fingers.

Kess had a general rule that, unless she had a very good reason, she never turned down a free drink. She picked up the glass and stood carefully. Concentrating not to stumble, she walked between the tables to him. She reached the man, sitting comfortably at a blue velvet table, and reviewed the stiff looks from the other players that had his primary attention.

"You looked like you were drowning your sorrows." The man said, requesting another card with a simple wave of his hand. "I thought I'd aide you in your quest."

Kess stepped behind him to nonchalantly watch the game, "Thanks. That's awfully observant of you." She checked the numbers glowing from the betting monitor and her eyes went wide.

"Do you play?" he asked without turning, "Why don't you sit down and join us?"

"I play a little, but I don't have that kind of money to lose."

The man grinned, "As long as you lose, we don't care what kind of money you have."

Light chuckles rolled through the other players. Kess looked at each of them in turn, sensing a variety of elation, deceit, and fear riding on their surface emotions. It suddenly occurred to her that she could sense who was bluffing and who actually had a decent hand. With the Force as her ally, she could make out like a bandit in a single round. 

Her conscience prodded her, though. That would be cheating and unfair to her opponents. She would end up stashing the loot somewhere, and not touch it unable to shake the guilt. And if the others ever found out about her hidden abilities, she would surely have a death mark on her head higher than her salary. No wonder Luke didn't gamble.

The man pulled at his mustache with chocolate colored fingers and, as per the dealer's instruction, laid down his cards on the table. Kess and the other players immediately recognized an Idiot's Array. He bowed his head at them as the dealer downloaded his winnings and handed him his Imperial credit chip. "Thank you ladies and gentlemen. It's been a pleasure." The man stood, took his drink, and politely ushered Kess to an empty table not far away. Kess sat cautiously down.

"I saw you working on a Corellian Freighter today." He looked her confidently in the eye and sipped his drink. "It happens to be exactly the thing I'm looking for."       

Kess sat back, "Sorry. She's not for sale."

He leaned forward in his chair, "I'm not looking to buy her. I need transport. That freighter is the perfect size."

She shook her head sympathetically, "My skipper's in the middle of a deal. I'd love to help you but I really don't think we're available for cargo." The undercover story rolled once through her mind, remembering all the fine details to pull off this probably innocent conversation.

The man shrugged. "It couldn't hurt to ask. . . Why don't you take me to your Captain and I'll make it worth his while."

Kess brought the glass to her mouth and stared at him over the rim. She may have been half drunk, but she wasn't stupid. "I've got a better idea. You give me the information where you cane be reached, and my Captain will decide for himself if it's worth his while."

The deep brown eyes smiled at her as his first ploy unraveled. His grin faded into firm seriousness, "I need to see him sooner than that."

Kess chuckled at him, "Look, what do you expect me to do? You buy me a drink, pull me aside and demand that I take you to my leader? I don't even know who you are."

He smiled bashfully, "I'm sorry," and offered a hand to her, "My name is Han."

Kess winced with a grin, "What's your _last_ name?"

White teeth flashed at her reaction, "Solo. Han Solo."

Kess snickered, "D'you really expect me to believe that?"

The man grinned wider, "Of course not. But your reaction to it admitted your connection with Solo. You're the Lieutenant assigned to the Falcon while the New Alliance is here for the Frakkan treaty. . .. Aren't you?"

Her laughter died an uncomfortable, miserable death.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Luke had showered and changed into set of white pajamas made of light material. He forced himself to concentrate on what he was reading, but his mind wandered off for the twentieth time in this hour alone. He tossed the datapad aside on the couch and pulled his legs off the footrest. A single light in front of the elevator was the room's only illumination and reflected off the dirty dome head of sleeping Artoo. Artoo hunched in the corner of the sitting area next to Threepio who was just as lifeless.

Leia and Han had turned in hours ago. Chewie went to bed shortly after that. The suite had been deathly quiet since then. No quiet rush of wind through the elevator shaft, no click of the card key to open the doors. He looked at the chronometer on the wall. 

2307.

Luke pulled himself off the couch and turned around, reviewing the dining table. Datapads cluttered its surface and chairs weren't pushed in. He strolled tiredly up the step towards his room and saw again, Kess' bedroom door resting open. With a deep sigh, he went to her door, rested his shoulder on the jam, and turned on the light.

The pale blue bed was crumpled slightly in places where she'd sat on it after the B9 droid had cleaned her room. Civilian black ankle boots were placed neatly on the floor and of grease-smudged coveralls were draped over the back of the desk chair. One of the pillows on her bed was crooked, but it wasn't depressed with the tell tale sign that she'd rested her head in it.

His brow furrowed. He peeled his shoulder from the door and walked across the floor. Pulling up the pillow, he found a petite hilt of a lightsaber hiding underneath, like she'd been staring at it wishfully before going to sleep every night. He picked it up with a weak grin, rolled it over in his hand, and flipped open the side panel. A wad of components were cleanly soldered together inside, the dummy load fitted next to the gaping hole where a crystal should have been.

She had finished the dud saber to completion, except for the crystal, so she wouldn't be tempted to turn it on. Luke smiled and sighed through his nose, closing the panel with his thumb until it clicked back into place. He detected the faint smell of her perfume and the mustiness of old canvas coveralls. He could almost feel the afterimage of her playful crush.

Luke realized he had closed his eyes to envision her smiling face and suddenly shook the vision from his thoughts. He put the saber back in its place and set the pillow to lie neatly over top. His bare feet padded on the carpet as he left the room and crawled into his own bed. As he cuddled his shoulder into the pillow, he looked at the chronometer on the comm screen. 

2322. 

She'd been gone for nearly eight hours.

Maybe he reacted too harshly to her, but he thought he'd made his requirements clear when she had the vision weeks before. She didn't try to hide how she felt about him. The look in her eyes was often obvious. Luke forced himself to ignore it daily, hoping that it would just go away, and pretended not to notice the surface emotions she radiated. Control, he would tell himself, keep control until training is over. He sighed into the darkness of his room and whispered out loud, "When training is over, Kesselia. . .." He listened to the sound of her name in the air, "Kesselia K. Lendra. . . ."

He remembered the rooster tails of sand she'd kicked up as she clumsily closed on the skittering mugrat, and how ungracefully she toppled over the crest of the sand dune. When he'd finally cleared his eyes of sand from his own fall, her tousled hair shined in the sunlight. Her cheeks flushed with laughter, her eyes glowed with attraction. It was the first time anyone had looked at him like that in years. 

Luke had broke down and told her a farm boy story with farm boy emotions and farm boy laughter, and just like any pretty city girl would, she broke down and kissed the farm boy to see if he would blush.

Luke caught himself beaming into the darkened room as he remembered the scene. He remembered the smell of her and the taste of her. He remembered his conscious thoughts fighting loudly against his training. _Open your stupid mouth and kiss her back!_

Not until training is over.

Just this once, he decided not to Jedi trance himself to sleep. In his trance, he didn't dream. And even though he couldn't kiss her back now, no law said that he couldn't think about it. He imagined what he would do if he could, and a smile spread across his lips as he drifted into a mortal sleep. He would dream on command, about a fifteen year old, farm boy reaction to a city girl kissing him in the sand dunes.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"Who are you?" Kess asked him as soon as she could breath again.

"My name is Lando Calrissian," he said. "I have a private message for Solo from Mon Mothma. And it's urgent."

Kess touched her senses looking for deceit but she found none. She didn't trust herself though, not after seven drinks. Or was is eight? "Yeah, okay. Prove it."

He grinned at her sarcastically, "Forgive me if I don't flaunt my Rebel ID in here."

Kess grinned back and stood, "Well then you're just going to have to think up something else, aren't you?" If she could buy time, she could sneak back to the hotel and tell Solo about the stranger. If she could just lose the guy for a few minutes. . .. "I'll be at the bar when you think of something."

Lando quickly stood and followed her. "I've got a bad feeling about this," he said allowed.

She slowed to a stop. 

He bent over and whispered in her ear. "You can't miss that line. It's probably an inside joke by ow. . .. Leia calls him a nerfherder. Han calls her Her Worshipfulness. Chewie still eats like a starving Gamorrean and Luke still levitates the pepper across the table when everyone's too busy eating to pass it to him."  Lando saw her shy grin and smiled with success. "I'm not a General anymore, so I can't order you, and I'm not the kind of guy to pull a blaster on a potential friend. So, I'm asking you, please, take me to Solo now."

Kess looked down at her half empty glass for a moment and poured the remaining liquor down her gullet. Wiping her face with her sleeve, "C'mon."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

B9 stood with his arm comfortably plugged into the wall. Shuley removed her palms from her weary face and looked at the droid from her stiff position on the couch. Her lips were pulled in with the visible effort to keep her mouth shut. Levilot sat across from Shuley, not feeling any better about the situation than she, but not letting his worry show in his face either. 

Admiral Cheenan paced in front of them in the sitting area, his booming voice echoing in the room, "Not in all my years of service have I ever dealt with such a gross example of treachery." He tapped rapidly on the hilt of his lightsaber as he paced and continued to complain.

Daitahn turned away from the sitting area, growing tired of the Admiral's nervous pacing, and reviewed the small army of six stormtroopers standing in ranks in the corner of the hotel suite. They didn't look back at him. They just stood there awaiting further orders. Daitahn suspected that, deep down inside, the Imperial troops were bursting with excitement at the pending raid on Rebel politicians.

B9 turned his silver grill of a smile towards the sitting area. "Lieutenant Lendra has entered the south entrance and is proceeding to the south elevator."

Cheenan stopped and boomed an order at the droid, "Send in the seekers to immobilize the Skywalker twins at once!"

B9 returned his head to default zero degrees, not programmed to notice the strain in a human's voice. "Yes, sir," he responded happily and removed his attention from the hotel and door monitors to activate the preprogrammed seekers.

Daitahn could hear the soft wind rushing by as the elevator car carried the body to the suite above, and immediately requested the next car. He glanced at Levilot with a disturbed expression.

Levilot slowly stood, "We'll be waiting in the precinct office."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

In the hushed darkness of Luke's room, a white wall tile slid aside. A hovering mechanical ball the size of a large apple floated out in the air. A single dot of white light shined from its visual sensors onto the darkened floor. The seeker floated forward until the tiny beam of light passed over Luke's bed. Then it stopped, adjusted its vector over the sleeping body, and moved up towards the head of the bed. The light reached Luke's shoulder.

Luke stirred.

The seeker paused, blinking off the light until the movement ceased. Then, exactly five seconds after Luke returned to a motionless sleep, the seeker hovered forward, the white light targeting the flesh over a muscular jugular vein.

The seeker whirred quietly as it armed its two-inch long needle with poison. Once in place, the seeker switched off its repulsor circuit. It dropped like a lead weight onto Luke's neck, sending the needle, and the poison, deep into his veins.

Luke lurched. Every muscle in his body went painfully stiff. His eyes went blankly wide. Then he shuddered uncontrollably and went completely limp.

The spent seeker fell to the carpet and sounded a quiet thump from the silence of the sitting area. Seconds later, a quiet rush of wind moved through the elevator shaft followed by the click as a card key accessed the lock. 

The elevator doors slid open and a single woman stepped out. A strange cut of olive drab coveralls hung loosely on her frail figure and chiseled featured of a young face reviewed the room in an expression much more serious than standard for her age. Her cherry tinted hair was tucked neatly under a dirty blonde wig. Lavender eyes fell on the shiny gold frame of the protocol droid sitting lifeless on the couch. Thin lips curled into and evil smile. 

Zoiy was a good thief and she knew it. She knew how to snag the card key from an accidental fall, she knew to wait until the suspicion of it missing fell through the cracks, and she knew exactly how the elevator and door monitors identified non-Frakkan humans. All of her thieving knowledge was about to pay off: that droid would make her the money to get off this stinking planet and then some.

She fell to her knees in front of Threepio and ripped open his chest panel to disconnect the memory circuits. 

The wind quietly rushed in the elevator shaft. Zoiy sprang to her feet, heading straight for the kitchen where she could hide in a cupboard. She tripped and landed face first on the carpet. Cussing out loud, she rolled over, and just as she rose to her feet, saw the elevator doors slide aside. The gleaming white armor of a stormtrooper stepped out, lowered his stun gun and showered her with blue white-bolts. 

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Kess leaned against the reflective elevator wall, "Well you can wake Solo up. I'm not going to do it." 

Lando grinned at her. "Don't you guys get along?"

Kess pulled out her card key and slid it into the slot. "He's a smuggler. He doesn't trust anybody. I'm no exception." The access lock clicked and the doors slid aside. Her brows immediately knitted together. "Where's the droids?"

Threepio and Artoo weren't sitting on the couch where they should have been. She looked around the room, sensing something was very wrong. Datapads on the table, chairs not pushed in, Luke's tunic draped across the iron railing of the sitting area. Everything seemed normal, except for the droids.

"Look here," Lando said. Kess met him at the other side of the sitting area and looked where he pointed at the ground. A spot of red blood was still soaking into the pale carpet. Their eyes followed the barely visible dribble trail that led them straight to Chewie's room. Lando stepped forward and slammed his hand on the door control. Chewie's footrest had been kicked aside. His blankets on the floor, and his stripped bed were all speckled with the Wookiee's blood.

Lando angrily went to the room next door and slammed it open. Seeing the same signs of a bloody struggle in Han and Leia's room, Lando balled his fists and glared at Kess.

Fear welled up in Kess' throat. "Luke!" She frantically punched Luke's door open. The blankets were completely tossed aside. No blood that she could see, but no Luke either. Kess sucked in a quivering sigh and stepped in. She looked around the room again. No lightsaber, but the rest of his things lay undisturbed. 

Lando hissed at her from the door, "We'd better get out of here."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Han felt a wave of nausea when he opened his eyes and tried to focus. He hung from his wrists in the center of an iron bar cell. His feet were bound to the floor in the same kind of metal shackles. Through two rows of bars, her saw a limply hanging figure in white pajamas and squinted to recognize Luke's head hanging down like his neck had been broken.

"Luke," he called, and realized his mouth was still filled with blood from being pounded in the face with a butt of a blaster. He heard a weak growl. "Chewie?" He turned his dizzy head and tried to scan the other cells for his friend. Each of the six cells was square and most had a limp body hanging from binders tied to the ceiling. Leia hug motionless in the cell next to Luke and Chewie barely balanced on his feet in the cell next to him. "Chewie! Are you all right?"

Chewie grumbled quietly. The brown fur on his drooping head, shoulder, and right arm was matted with drying blood. He softly hooted Kess' name.

Han managed to pull his bound ankles underneath him and raised himself to his full height. The bump on his head sent his eyes spinning wildly, but he was able to focus for occupants in the other cells. There was only one other: a woman hanging unconscious in the cell next to Leia in olive drab coveralls too big for her frame and shoulder length blonde hair. Something didn't seem right. He squinted harder. 

That's not Lendra.

He closed his eyes and cussed, "I should have known she be behind this."

The thick durasteel door of the holding area burst open and swung on thick hinges until it slammed into the wall. An Imperial Admiral marched in with Levilot and two stormtroopers at his heals. He didn't look at Han, not even at Luke, but went straight to the woman who had posed to be Lendra. 

Han watched the stormtroopers open the door of her cell and release the woman's wrist shackles from the ceiling. He called out casually, "Hey Governor, you wanna explain this to me?"

Levilot turned to him with tight lips. The Admiral didn't turn at all, simply growled an order, "Shut him up."

The second stormtrooper pointed a blaster at Han. Han promptly closed his lips.            "WHAT!?" The Admiral screamed. He turned around with a wad of blonde hair in his angry fist. "What is this?!"

Levilot's face turned to horror when he realized the wig. He shook his head and tried to speak an explanation but found nothing intelligent to say.

Cheenan's red face came within inches of Levilot. "WHAT IS THIS?! Where is the Usak!" Before Levilot had a chance to breath, the Admiral stomped to Han's cell, "Where is she!"

Han stared down the Admiral with his lips still drawn shut. He may have not liked Kess very much, and she could still very well be a spy, but he wouldn't turn in a member of his crew until he knew all the facts. 

The Admiral threw the wig to the ground. "Tell me or I'll have you shot where you stand!"

Han said nothing and stared at the Admiral with Rebel determination.

Cheenan's face went ever redder. His teeth clenched into a solid rock of a jaw. He turned and stormed out of the room.

Levilot met Han's eyes before he followed and said a very quiet, and not so sincere, "I'm sorry." He motioned to the stormtroopers, who promptly removed the woman from her cell and ungraciously dragged her out of the holding area.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Kess and Lando found a dark alley near the docking bay and roughly tossed six stuffed bags in a shadowy corner. Lando jerked his head and Kess followed him to the stone steps leading up the outside of a four story building next door. The stairway had a solid plaster railing, convenient for them to hide behind. They quietly crawled up to the landing of the third floor and peered over the short wall.

The roof of the docking bay was still open from a day's work in the beautiful sunshine. A single blue fluorescent light glowed onto the dirty gray hull of the Millennium Falcon, nestled quietly within the walls.

"There she is." Lando whispered into the midnight stillness. "At least we know they didn't just leave without you."

Kess whispered to him, "How did you get here?"

Lando glanced at her, "Public transport. But even if I did have my own ship here, how do you think Han would react to you getting them off Frakkan and leaving the Falcon behind?"

Kess pursed her lips. "Okay, never mind." She whispered, "I was working on the fuse box on the bridge. It'll take less than five minutes to get that up and running. But Chewie was doing something with the shield generators, I don't know what. And yesterday, I removed some autofoam from a hull breach. I haven't gone to get a sheet metal replacement yet."

"We could fix her, if we could get to her."

Kess snarled at him, slightly raising her whispered voice, "Of course we can get to her. There's nobody out here."

"Shh," Lando hissed. "Take a closer look. See that bum on the street?" Lando turned around and leaned his back against the stone railing, "When was the last time you saw a bum in Sultani?"

Sure enough, a not so old man sat hunched in a shadowy corner, dressed in rags and sucking a bottle. His dark eyes slowly moved up the street and back down again. He was sitting rather close to the docking bay's only foot entrance. Kess scanned over the quiet streets again, imagining the scene of bustling midday of hundreds of finely dressed Frakkans. "Good point. But if they wanted to keep me from taking off, why don't they just post obvious stormtroopers?"

Lando looked at her in the darkness and stated the obvious, "Because they want you to try."

Kess squinted, "What would they want me for?"

Lando leaned over to her and lowered his already quiet whisper. "Mon Mothma received information that convinced her the Frakkans would try to take the Usak if it wasn't given to them and that is exactly what they are trying to do."

Her face suddenly turned to horror. Kess backed up on wavering arms and knees and fell into the opposite wall. The facts raced through her mind, little tidbits of seemingly irrelevant information suddenly fit together to form one solid conclusion. . .

_Nobody knew who requested her by name. _

_The Usak must be sacrificed before shared to maintain peace in the galaxy. _

_We have an educated guess, that's all._

Her throat slammed shut in fear. The pain of betrayal made her heart thump louder. Her breath quivered and tears welled up in her eyes. Would he really turn me in for a treaty?

Lando read the look on her face, "If they were going to give you up, you'd be in jail right now, not them."

"But if it's me they want, why did they raid the suite while I wasn't there?"

Lando shrugged. "It was late. Don't you usually get back earlier than that? You still haven't told be why you were out drowning your sorrows while the rest of your party were busy getting kidnapped."

Kess lowered her gaze in nervous guilt, "Luke and I got in an argument, that's all."

"Over what?" he asked flatly. "_Luke_ doesn't get into arguments for no reason."

The circumstances demanded that she reveal all the information she knew. Besides, she knew Lando didn't trust her quite yet and if she was going to get off this planet, she was going to need his help. "I kissed him. . . and he had asked me not to."

Lando grinned and then he rubbed his forehead. "Now why would he get upset over that?" 

Kess tapped on the hilt of the useless lightsaber. "I'm his apprentice. I'm supposed to wait until training is over before I seduce him."

Lando eyes popped out of their sockets as he recognized the contraption hanging from her belt. His shock sputtered to a laugh and he had to work to keep his voice down.

Kess grinned at the reaction, and deep down prayed that Luke was okay. This was all her fault. Her Captain, his First Officer, a high ranking Ambassador, and the last living Jedi Knight, were all kidnapped and their lives were in danger over little ol' Kess. Thank the Force Lando showed up, she would be completely lost at what to do if he hadn't. She had a sick feeling in her stomach imagining the debriefing if they ever made it back to Yavin 4 alive. 

Her Force senses twanged and pulled her from her worry. She closed her eyes to concentrate and recognized another person walking hurriedly down the empty city street. "Shh," she whispered and climbed up on their knees to peak. Lando went silent and joined her to pear over the half high wall.

A Frakkan woman in a dark jumpsuit walked quickly down the street. Dark hair was rolled into circular bun atop her head, and fists were shoved deep into the pockets of baggy coveralls.

The bum watched with shadowy eyes, but otherwise didn't move.

The woman walked by him without looking up. As soon as she passed, she rose her face to look at the glass walls of the hotel.

Kess and Lando dropped behinds the wall. Kess' face pursed in thought and suddenly her eyes went wide in recognition. "She stole my crystal. . .   _and_ my keycard"

"What?" Lando mouthed.

"She's the thief that bumped me in the street." The pieces fell firmly into place. "She probably went to steal from the suite and that's why they thought I was in there."

Lando shook his head at her, completely lost, "What are you talking about?"

Kess backed down the steps on her hands and knees, "But if they snagged her, thinking she was me, why isn't she still in jail?" She pulled her useless saber from her belt and slunk into the shadows close as she could to the street. 

The soft clicking of shoes grew slowly louder. Kess closed her eyes and felt out to pinpoint the woman's Force print. As soon as the body cleared the wall, Kess shot out her arm and grabbed the woman around her chest, shoving the lightsaber hilt into her back, and dragging her backwards into the alley. Kess whispered roughly into her ear, "You scream, I shoot."

Lando stood in the corner, his hands out in disbelief and confusion.

The woman didn't flinch, or struggle, or even gasp. She simply nodded and lifted her hands to show that she was unarmed. Kess backed off to let her turn around. The woman's shoulders relaxed and she sighed. "You're Lendra, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

She dropped her arms, glanced at Lando and drilled her eyes into Kess. "I have message from the Empire. If you turn yourself in, they'll let the others go free. If you don't, they will kill all your friends."

Lando stepped forward, "Who are you?"

The girl dropped her gaze. "My name is Zoiy, but I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." She looked at Kess again. "I don't want to be in the middle of this. . . I've delivered my message, let me be on my way."

Lando whispered stiffly, "How were they sure that you'd deliver the message?'        

"They said they'll kill me if I didn't," as if that explained it, but she didn't understand the question.

"No," Lando placed a hand on one elbow each of the naïve women in front of him and started pulling them deeper into the alley. "How would they know you delivered it, if they didn't follow you?"

ZAPT! A red bolt charred the stonewall next to Zoiy's head. In a frantic stumble, all three bodies tore through the alley. With few equipment cases along the dark alley, there wasn't much to take cover behind. Lando cussed and pulled out a hidden blaster. The small weapon wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. Without pausing his headlong run, he barely aimed behind him and fired.

ZAT! Another red bolt hit the corner of the building just as Kess passed it. She ducked and ran full speed through the shadows down the street.

Zoiy had peeled off from the chase, obviously knowing the city's layout better and hoping to lose the dangerous company. She ran straight towards the beach where she could have been easily cornered. Lando instinctively followed the native, regardless of whether she wanted them to or not. Kess followed Lando reluctantly and wondered if the man knew that Kess didn't know how to swim.

ZOP! ZOP! Two more bolts sank into a six-foot tall sand dune. Kess and Lando followed the girl into the looming hills, barely escaping the flying blast shots. Zoiy ducked around a dune up ahead and when Lando and Kess came around the corner, she was gone.

Kess stopped and shut her eyes to use her novice Force senses but Lando grabbed her by the collar and yanked her to the ground.

ZZZZIIINNNNGGG-P! A bolt sailed over her head and hit the opposite sand dune. 

_How in hell am I supposed to concentrate when someone is shooting at me?!_ Forcing her panic to calm, she was able to vaguely detect a single person running full speed away from them, underground.

Kess crawled combat style around the scoop of another dune until her elbow thumped on something hollow. She felt with her hands and found that the sand in this one spot was firm and stiff, like concrete perfectly camouflaged to be tiny mounds.

ZAP! That bolt hit a different dune. The pursuer had lost sight of them for the moment. Kess found the edges of the door and flung it open. Lando dove inside and Kess dove after him, letting the door fall into place above her head. ZAP!

The sound of the blast shots went deathly silent in the pitch black of the tunnel. Kess closed her eyes and found the girl's Force print running off to the right. Keeping her eyes shut (since she couldn't see anyway) she grabbed Lando's hand, and ran in that direction. The dampness of the tunnels filled their nostrils as they panted. They were only a few meters behind the girl and could hear the occasional splash as she ran through muddy puddles.

They went left, then right, then another right, zig-zags and U-turns, straight alleys and curving caves. The catacombs had no light whatsoever. Lando whispered through his quiet pant, more than once, "I hope you know what you're doing."

Several minutes later, after twisting and turning in the tunnels to the point that they could have been under the other side of town, the woman stopped in her tracks and fell to the ground. Kess stopped and concentrated, hoping that she didn't lose her, but detected the growing fear and heavy breathing. Confidently, Kess walked around the corner that masked her and looked down at the red head that couldn't keep up the chase. 

"How did you-?" she breathed heavily in absolute terror and amazement. "How did you-?"

Lando knelt to the ground. "We're not going to hurt you and we're not going to turn you in. We just need to know about where our pals are being held and you apparently have first hand experience."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

The reporting stormtrooper fell to the floor of the office in a dead heap of white armor.

Admiral Cheenan breathed heavily through his nose and released the grip from the man's throat. His other had risen in a burst of anger and threw Skywalker's lightsaber hilt to dent the opposite wall in the precinct office.

Levilot jerked and tried to calm his growing fear. He held his breath as the seething Admiral approached him and spoke in a deathly evil voice, "So, what is your next brilliant idea, Governor?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

A pale light barely pushed away the shadows in the catacombs. Kess and Lando hunched around the small lamp and reviewed the haphazard sketches of the precinct floor. Zoiy sat at the other end of the single room home, hugging herself in a ratty chair. "Why do they want you so badly?" She asked in a quivering voice. This was all, obviously, too much for her to handle.

Kess barely turned to her, "They think I'm the Usak apparently."

Zoiy rubbed her face with her hand. "Good for you."

"What does that mean? 'Usak'."

Zoiy squinted and rolled her hand in the air for the right word in basic. "It's a.. a student of sorts."

Kess looked at Lando and Lando looked at Kess. 

Lando sighed hard. "Where are they holding my team?"

Zoiy snarled at him, "Look, I don't care a bit about your missions and things. I just want off this stone. If you don't turn me in again, I won't turn you in. We can go about our merry way."

Lando clasped his hands together. "We can't do that."

The girl winced again like a teenager in trouble.

Lando sat down on the table and looked at Zoiy. "But, if you want to get out of here, I'm willing to make you a deal."

Zoiy's eyes shot up, considering.

Kess muttered, "First thing's first, Lando." She held out a hand to Zoiy, "And first, you are going to give me back my crystal."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Levilot stepped into the holding area alone and shut the thick door behind him. His gray eyes were tired, scared, and panicking. He stepped to Han's cell and spoke in a low, stiff voice. "The Imperial Admiral uncovered our treaty negotiations and is obviously upset about it. He's willing to let you and your party go unharmed if the Usak is turned over to him." He wrapped his white fingers around the bars of Han's cell. "He will level this entire city if we do not find her soon. Please, I beg of you Captain, for the lives of innocent thousands, where is your Lieutenant?"

Han looked at the man evilly, "Even if I knew, do you think I'd actually tell you? If she were smart she'd be half way back to Yavin by now."   

"No ships have left the city." Levilot mumbled and looked to Luke eagerly, "Would Skywalker be able to find her?"

Han looked at Luke hanging deathly still from his wrists. He hadn't stirred once since Han woke up. "Not in that condition he can't. . .. If you ask me, it looks as though our party has already been harmed."

"He is simply drugged." Levilot whispered, "It was the only way we could immobilize a Jedi."

"Well you succeeded." Han hissed at him. "I guess you can throw your hope of a treaty with the New Alliance into the nearest black hole."

Levilot's eyes flicked to Han at the insult, but new instantly that he deserved it. Without further argument, he walked away.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Zoiy led the way through the tunnels for over a kilometer and finally stopped under a gaping hole in the ceiling. She pulled a wet rope from the wall and held it out to Kess. It dangled from and unknown spot in the dense blackness above, but seemed to be a strong attachment.

"There's a ladder when you get to the elevator shaft. I don't know, about. . . two stories up or so." Her whisper echoed against the stone walls. "There's no light so you'll have to count floors."

Kess locked her now fully-functional, fully-lethal lightsaber to her belt. "Isn't there some landmark I can feel with my hands?"

Zoiy shook her head. "Never noticed. I'm always coming down, not up."

Kess grabbed the damp rope with both hands and smiled at Lando, "See you in the funny papers."                        

Lando looked up the dank shaft, "How long should we give you?"

Kess looked up and saw nothing but imagined the climb in her head. "Several hours I think. Don't worry, I'll call you when I'm in."

Lando didn't like the idea of letting Kess do this part, but he was the only one who knew how to fly, and the Falcon was their ticket out. "Well," he patted her on the back, "May the Force be with you."

She smiled, "You too." With that, she lifted herself with both hands, planted her feet on the wall and started climbing up.

Lando watched the three seconds it took her body to disappear into the darkness. Then he turned to the tunnel. "Let's go."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

The faint morning glow inched into the city streets and an occasional bird chirped as they awoke. Speeders had occasionally zipped down the streets and shops were starting to open up, making Zoiy not the only person to pass by the alert bum. 

Zoiy painted her lips with the bright red lipstick, blotted them together, and, with the palm of her hand, smeared the fresh lipstick across her face. She let her shoulders sink and dragged her feet around the corner. The bitter morning air stung as her exposed skin. She had to change into the most revealing outfit for this con.

Sluggishly, she sauntered up the sidewalk and purposefully passed the bum still hunched in front of the docking bay. She stopped thoughtfully and turned around. "Ssssscuse me," she slurred as she reached him. "Kin you tell me which way th' Tandik Hotel is?"

The bum shook his head at her with clear eyes. "Beat it."

Zoiy squinted slowly, "I's jist ak-sing fo' directions. Which way is th' Tandik-_hic_ Hotel?" Suddenly, she collapsed to her knees, falling forward into his lap, and began to giggle.

The man pushed her roughly aside, "I said beat it!"

When he had half turned to push her, Zoiy caught a glimpse of a shadow slipping passed the door and grinned. "My a'en't we a little grouchy this mo'nin'." She climbed on her hands and knees and used the wall to help her stand the rest of the way. "I'll find it m'self, ththththank you."

Like a fully intoxicated prostitute, she stumbled down the street and, as soon as she was out of sight, deftly disappeared around a corner. 

Zoiy grinned at herself, the oldest trick in the book still worked.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"Ten. . ." She breathed the number every time she exhaled, pulled her body up another wrung of the ladder and said it again. "Ten. . ." exhale, step, inhale, "Ten." exhale, step, inhale, "Ten." It was the surest way she would not lose count. 

A breeze picked up and quickly grew to a gale force wind. Kess scrambled off the ladder to smash her body up against the wall between the durasteel frame beams. An elevator hummed upward and passed her, drying her face of the sweat with the rushing air. 

As soon as the air settled again, she swung out back to the ladder and resumed her steady climb. "Ten. . ." and felt the jutting seem of the next floor, exhale, step, inhale. "Eleven. . ."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Zoiy brought the last bag and dropped it into the pile on the beach. A single sheet of metal leaned up against one side of the pile, reflecting the morning sun. Between the six bags from the jailed group, Lando's bag from his own hotel room, and Zoiy collection of things she wasn't willing to leave behind, the pile had grown in size to look like they were trying to move an entire household for a family of four.

The pile nestled between sand dunes on the beach and Zoiy plopped down into the slope next to it. She pulled the commlink from her pocket and whispered into it. "I'm ready."

"Okay." Lando's voice came back in a rough whisper. "Sit tight. You'll hear her the same time I will, so stay sharp."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"Twenty two. . ." exhale, step, inhale, "twenty two. . ." exhale, step, inhale, "twenty two. . .." At one point, she had considered grabbing a hold of a passing elevator car but quickly disregarded the idea. Even if she could hold on as it sailed skyward, she couldn't count floors in the darkness and then, how in hell would she jump off without falling twenty two floors. . .. Twenty three floors.

She was bored with counting but knew she had to continue. So she muttered through her whispers an edited version of a child's lullaby. "Twenty three green and speckled frogs. Twenty three on a speckled log. Twenty three the most delicious bugs. Yum Yum."

Another jutting seam of the next floor. Kess didn't even pause, "Twenty four jumped into the pool. Twenty four was nice and cool. Then there were twenty four speckled frogs. Plop. Plop." 

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Admiral Cheenan's stern blue eyes stared out the window. He had grown weary with his churning anger. All of his efforts to capture the Usak had been defeated. He wanted to vent is frustrations on the measly government representatives in the room but tactically know that he would need the Frakkan spy network to retrieve the Usak from Yavin 4 once she had returned.

The Frakkans were the one's who found the Usak in the first place. . . they must be doing something right.

Levilot, Shuley, and Daitahn sat stiffly quiet with him in the precinct office. Their fear and barely contained hate echoed to Cheenan through the Force and was only amplified back. He had Levilot right where he wanted him. . . petrified. The Governor was willing to do anything to prevent more lives from being lost. Especially those lives that represented his precious Rebel Alliance.

Anything.

But they were all completely drained of ideas.

Cheenan abruptly stood and squared his shoulders. The Frakkans looked up attentively, but penitently, hoping that another death was not about to take place. Cheenan smiled instead. What he was about to say would scare them even more.

"I am returning to the Tarkin to communicate with Master Kadaan about this incident. You will report to me at once if there is any change. I will return once I have further orders." He moved to the door and prepared to open it, but paused. "If I were you, Governor, I would put forth every effort to find that Usak before I return."

Levilot nodded without looking up and as soon as the door closed behind the Admiral, everyone relaxed considerably from the absolute fear into a frantic worry.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

It took Lando a few minutes to inspect the fuse box and finish Kess' work without powering up anything. In the stillness of early morning, even the quiet cluck of switching on the bridge power would have echoed outside the ship to alert the bum.

He'd tiptoed in stocking feet to the starboard hall where one of the wall panels had been stripped away to access the shield generator. By visuals alone, it took nearly an hour to figure out what Chewie was up to with the shield generator and Lando ended up doing a quick mechanical fix to bypass the circuit in question anyway.

Now, as far as he could tell without diagnostics, the Falcon was as ready as she was going to get. He lovingly traced a finger along the wall as he silently returned to the main cargo bay and flopped down on the blue repulsor couch. 

This baby had gotten him out of worse situations, he noted. He, Han, Chewie, Leia, and Luke all had saved each others lives at one point in time or another, but the Millennium Falcon always seemed to be the common denominator. Maybe the ship deserved all those medals instead.

Lando pulled the commlink from his pocket, ensured that it was on, and rested his head on the back of the couch to await the Lieutenant's signal.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

"Thirty four green and speckled frogs." She panted up another rung, barely whispering the tune under her breath. "Sitting on thirty four green and speckled logs." Her thigh muscles burned, her calves ached, and her shoulders were tense in knots. "Eating the most delicious bugs. Yum. Yum. Thirty four jumped into the pool. Thirty four was nice and cool." She felt the lip of the next floor and grinned in the darkness. "Then there were thirty five speckled frogs. Yes sir!" 

In a rush of energy, she lifted herself several more rungs to stand even with the thirty fifth floor. Hooking her weary elbow around a wrung at her chest, she used her other hand to pull the commlink out of her pocket and spoke into it. "I still can't believe these morons put a holding area next to an elevator shaft."

Lando's voice sounded back. "Kess? You're in? I was getting worried."

"You try to climb a ladder for thirty five stories." She paused, trying to focus her eyes on the wall in the darkness. "I'm going in. Come and get us, Lando."

"Gotchya, Zoiy-" 

Kess turned off the commlink knowing that the cameras would pick up the conversation when she cut through the wall. It was the wall to her right and, she ignited the amber blade to glow brightly in the darkness.

Kess grinned evilly.

And cut a giant slash through the durasteel wall. The blade sunk into the material like a butter knife. Adjusting her grip, she managed a crooked hole, turned off the saber and kicked the piece with all her weakened might. It broke loose and clattered on the floor inside.

The noise echoed through the elevator shaft as light poured in. Kess maneuvered her body and grabbed the sharp rim of her fresh cut hole and hung from the lip with bent elbows. Without actually climbing inside yet, she ignited the saber again, and reached up inside the wall. With one quick, clumsy stroke, she sliced the only camera off of its wall harness, cutting the power line in the process. 

"It's about time." Han grumbled happily as soon as the camera was out of commission.

Two of the cells were empty. Chewie looked at her like he was drugged, Luke and Leia were out cold. Kess scrambled into the room and went to the Captain's cell first. "Lieutenant Lendra, reporting for duty, sir." 

Before she even finished her sentence, she was slicing off two pieces of the iron bars, carefully laid them on the floor to prevent too much noise, and climbed into the cell with him. Han pulled his wrists down for her to cut the chain and then pulled his wrists apart for her to separate the metal bracelets. He stepped back, "What happened?"

Kess cut his ankles free as she spoke. "Well, the Imperials think I'm the Usak. Some thief dressed up like me to rob us blind. The Imperials thought it was me, and raided the suite." She climbed out of Han's cell and proceeded to cut Chewie loose from his stall. Chewie looked at her with foggy but mean brown eyes and hooted a question.

"Yeah," Han tore the broken metal from his wrists and pulled himself from his cell. "Where were you?"

Kess stepped back and let Chewie climb out. "I was out drinkin'." She went to Luke's stall and gulped hard. He was still in his pajamas, still barefoot, and still unconscious. She could barely detect his Force print. "Is he alive?"

"It doesn't matter." Han grumbled at her, "Everyone's going home."

Kess cut out a large section so that Chewie could climb in and catch Luke when he fell. Chewie carefully draped the Jedi Knight over his non-bloody shoulder, and ducked out of the cell. Kess put a hand on Luke's cheek to check temperature. He was alive. Comatose, but alive. She sighed with relief.

"C'mon," Han snapped.

Kess and Han cut Leia out of her cell. Han gently put his wife over his shoulder and turned to Kess, "Now what?"

Kess turned to the door, rubbing her tired shoulders, "Now, we go meet our ride."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Shuley studied Skywalker's lightsaber in her hand and leaned her back against the wall next to the powered-down Rebel droids. Outside the window of the lobby, the bright sunshine reflected off the mirrored windows of the towering building next door. Shuley wanted nothing more than to lay out on the beach with a good book that had nothing to do with politics.

Levilot stood in front of the security desk, leaning his elbows tiredly on the high countertop and Daitahn had relieved the on-duty stormtrooper and stared at the screen viewing the holding area.

The office was quiet. All three had relaxed a little when the Captain finally left the precinct and by now was probably on the Star Destroyer already. But that fact entered a new worry. The Captain, who had so ruthlessly murdered every messenger bringing news of failure, was now at the controls of a firepower intense enough to obliterate the 60 story building they were standing in with one single shot.

Shuley let her hand fall to her side, "Governor?"

Levilot wiped his eyes, "She's still on the planet. . .She's either trying to find a way off, or trying to find a way to get them out." He motioned to the screen where the New Alliance politicians still hung from their shackles.

Daitahn muttered quietly, "My guess is the latter." 

He blinked and saw that the screen had gone blank. 

He checked the power and the directionals, everything was set correctly, "Governor?"

Levilot and Shuley gathered around and knew that it was definitely the latter. The Usak was about to break her friends out of jail. Levilot did not want to imagine the fireworks probably about to take place. His assistants looked up at him, awaiting orders.

Levilot made a quick decision, and consciously based it on his growing hate for the Empire. "Shuley, get to the roof and power up the hopper. Daitahn, take the lightsaber and the droids to the holding area," He looked his Vice Governor in the eye, "and _give them_ _back_. As soon as you're done, get to the roof. . . I'll be right behind you. I'm going to send a communiqué to Cheenan and give him all the spy codes we have on Yavin 4. Hopefully that will distract him long enough so they can get out. With any luck, this gesture will salvage our treaty and save Sultani at the same time. Go."

All three bodies started moving.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

As soon as Lando flipped on the Falcon's power, the high whine shook the bum out of his cover. The man stood his full height, flinging the rags from his clean brown slacks and tunic, and brought an Imperial commlink to his lips. Already helpless, except to report the incident, the man watched the Falcon rise out of the docking bay with its ramp still down, and fire up the propulsion systems to disappear around the building. 

Hoppers were already scrambling on the horizon when Lando nearly crash landed the Falcon on the beach. The ship rested on the shallow slope at an angle. He had aimed the open ramp toward Zoiy and her pile of stuff. "Hurry up. They're coming!" he yelled.

In a frantic panic, Zoiy slid the hull panel onto the deck and returned to grab two bags as a time and toss them aboard. She heaved the heavy bags into the dark ship with all her might. With the last load, she ran headlong up the ramp, rounded the corner and sat in the passageway to grab a hold of the wall. "Go! Go! Go!" The ship lifted again, Zoiy started pulling the bags away from the open ramp and dropped them into an open smugglers cargo hold where they would stay out of the way for now.

Lando counted four hoppers and fired with both main guns as he rose the ship into the air. The aerodynamic ships fired green bolts into the hull, shuddering and shaking the ship as it turned around. The hoppers didn't have the shear power of the space vessel, but in the atmosphere, the Falcon was clumsy at best. Four more hoppers came out of nowhere and battered the Falcon with more firepower.

The Falcon sped around the towering buildings with hoppers chasing it like angry gnats. Speeders and pedestrians swarmed into the streets below to watch the excitement but were taking cover under awnings and around corners. Lando raced between buildings down the street seeing small green bolts shattering the glass walls as he passed them. He fired the rear gun at the nearest pursuer. A hopper splintered in the air and crashed into the crowded streets below.

He reached the building in seconds and slammed in the dampers. The Falcon came to a screeching halt in the air. He rotated the ship to face one building, and littered the wall with blast shots. Panes of glass shattered and giant shards fell to the busy city streets.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Kess carried the loud hum of her ignited lightsaber in one hand and pulled Lando's blaster out of the back of her pants with the other. Han immediately took the blaster from her with his free hand and motioned for her to open the door. She sliced off the locking mechanism and, when Han nodded, pulled the thick door quickly aside.

With his wife still draped over one shoulder, he shot his arm and head out of the room and checked up and down the hall. No one was there. "No stormtroopers to guard a holding area?" He whispered pessimistically as Kess and Chewie joined him in the hallway.

Kess led the way, recognizing the map of the building Zoiy had drawn for them as she turned the next corner.

ZAPT! A shot scalded the plaster of the wall next to her. She ducked and retreated around the corner where Han and Chewie shook their heads at her. "Dummy," Han almost grinned.

Kess shrugged and stepped out of the way so Han and his blaster could clear the hall. He reached a single arm around the corner and fired three timed without looking. As soon as the echo of his shots faded, they distinctly heard the crumbling thump of stormtrooper armor. Han grinned arrogantly.

Kess raised her eyebrows, "I'm impressed."

"C'mon." Han lead the way around the corner and the team hustled to a four way break in the hallway.

Kess paused at the corner and silently motioned to the others that they would need to go straight. Using her saber blade as a decoy, she waved it once in the air past the break in the wall to see if anyone would shoot at it. A dozen blast shots tattered the walls to the right, and by the sound of the mechanical shouts, the garrison was not far down the hall.

They flattened against the closer wall and, as the sputtering shots faded, Han adjusted his grip and performed the same blind shooting again. The shots paused the troopers long enough for Chewie and Kess to race across the hall break. Han side stepped and kept shooting over and over, barely making it across the hall before the blaster shower resumed. "They're gonna be right behind us." Han warned, trying to get the others to move a little quicker.

But Kess and Chewie had stopped for a reason. Vice Governor Daitahn walked up stiffly with Artoo and Threepio at his heals. With serious eyes, he looked at Solo and then at Kess, knowing that this was the woman the Empire wanted so badly. Without a word he raised his hand and gave Kess the hilt of Skywalker's lightsaber.

Completely dumbfounded, Kess took it.

Han trotted passed them, "C'mon!"

Leaving the Vice Governor standing in the hallway they skipped to a full run towards the outer wall of the building. Threepio and Artoo did an about face and followed them as fast as their legs and wheels could carry them. Kess could hear Daitahn behind them, yelling, "Hold your fire. Hold you fire. I'm the Vice Governor of this system and -" ZAPT! Daitahn's voice went silent.

Han skidded to a stop when the hall walls peeled away into a T shaped lobby area with one giant wall of window. Outside, green bolts flew every which way, shattering glass in all of the buildings. Hoppers with turquoise Frakkan markings swarmed between the buildings. Han took cover behind the curving wall and was soon joined by Chewie. He adjusted his grip of his wife hanging from his shoulder. Leia was starting to get a little heavy. 

Kess tore around the corner with the droids waddling up the rear and took cover on the other side. "Get down!" She yelled and flattened against the floor and ignoring the blast shots coming from the hall. "Down! Get Down!"

Han ducked but kept his blaster ready for the close onslaught of stormtroopers about to pour out of the hallway. Loud blast shots rumbled overhead and were followed by the crunch and collapsed of walls echoing through the ceiling.

Kess looked up, confused. The windows were still intact, but among the flying hoppers and green blast shots, fell giant shards of glass from a story above.

A red bolt came around the corner at an angle. Kess scrambled to her feet. She knew nothing about blocking blast shots, but she wasn't about to get killed so close to getting out. Her eyes flared with acted anger and she ran straight at the stormtroopers with a lightsaber out like a jousting stick. Most of the troopers retreated behind the hall break. The ones that didn't were so startled at her reaction that their shots missed her entirely and sunk black spots into the wall.

Kess instantly backed up and took cover again, elated that her completely stupid maneuver had bought them at least another thirty seconds. She yelled into the commlink angrily, "The _other_ thirty fifth floor! The next floor _down_!"

The huge ship lowered and hovered outside their floor like and angry bird. Everyone flattened, even the troopers. Giant bolts of red lightening shattered the wall of glass and sank into the plaster walls inside. The next series of shots mowed down stormtroopers in the hallway. As soon as the glass barrier was cleared, Lando turned the ship to send the round cargo door hovering next to the gaping hole in the building. Zoiy stood inside the open door, holding on to the wall for dear life, and was positioned with a secured tether. 

Han picked up a blaster from a dead trooper and started shooting as he ran backwards. He refused to let himself ask the one question that plagued his mind until he was aboard. Who's flying my ship?

Chewie tightened his grip on Luke's legs and ran full sped, jumping to the open cargo door. The gap was farther than he thought and he fell flat on his stomach on the floor of the Falcon, his ankles dangling in the air and Luke's legs pinned underneath him. The redhead grabbed his fur with both hands until Chewie steadied himself and managed to scramble aboard.

Another blaster shot zinged passed Kess' head. She turned and slashed her saber fruitlessly. Han confidently aimed his blast with one hand and fired once. The last stormtrooper on the floor fell to the ground.

Outside, a half a dozen hoppers swarmed around the Falcon. The ship jerked at every hit. Its hull was getting bombarded with point blank shots. As if the Falcon received a second wind, the lower gun turret came to life and fired multiple shots at a hopper and the enemy vessel exploded in the air. The Falcon gained its balance back and adjusted to hovered closer to the building.

"GO!" Kess yelled.

Han grabbed the dangling rope as Zoiy swung it to him. He ran and swung on board, immediately grabbing for the railing. 

Kess sighed and turned around to the droids. "Closer, Lando."

Threepio whined in fear as Kess pushed him to the edge of the battered floor of the building. The droid couldn't swing on the rope like humans, so Kess tied the rope around his waist so that he wouldn't fall to the street if he missed the jump. Threepio complained, "I'm not designed for jumping like this."

"Would you rather stay here?" Kess muttered to him, working quickly. 

The ship steadied and hovered next to the building, hovering less than two feet from the open floor. Threepio waddled and jumped in mechanical clumsiness. Zoiy pulled on the rope and grabbed the droid's arm as he steadied his balance on the Falcon.

A hopper fell into the top of the ship, blowing itself to pieces and tilting the ship. In and effort to keep her steady, the side of the ship crashed into the building, sending the open cargo door far over the floor, and then, as the Lando adjusted again, the Falcon crashed down into the story below. Artoo rolled off the splintered floor just as the cargo door came back up to meet his wheels and the droid skidded onto the ship.

Kess blinked in amazement at Artoo's brave maneuver. Before the ship rocked away, she ran full speed and jumped the open gap between her and the cargo bay door. Zoiy grabbed her arm and held until she steadied. 

They grinned at each other quickly and parted to the next task in the plan: secure the Skywalker twins in the bunks. Kess switched off her saber and tossed them both in to the floor as she ran towards the cargo bay. Han was climbing up the ladder well to the upper gun turret as she passed and ran to the first bunk. Zoiy had Leia in place and was tying the Ambassador with belts. Kess continued until she found Luke crumpled limply in his bunk. The ship rocked as the battle raged. She pulled his legs out and dug out the belts to tie him in.

Han shot with one hand and slapped the headset on his ear with the other. Now, with all three guns manned, and everyone aboard, he gritted his teeth with a grin, "Okay. Who's flyin' my ship?"

"Howya doin' partner?" Lando's voice came back.

Han smiled and fired, "Lando?"

"One and the same," The ship rose out the towering buildings. "I figured I owed you a favor."

Chewie hooted through the commlink.

Lando swung the ship around and hit the accelerator. The Falcon sailed around a skyscraper and fled full speed out over the ocean. As Lando punched it out over the sea, several hoppers followed frantically. Chewie and Han plowed them with fire behind the ship, taking down three if them in a row. 

A giant green lighting bolt shot vertically down from space and into the ocean between the Falcon and the hoppers. 

Han muttered under his breath "Star Destroyers."

Lando shouted back, "We can't go into space anyway! We've got a hull breach to repair!"

Han closed his eyes and hit his forehead on the tracking box in front of him.

Another bolt came down from space much, much closer.

"Get ready to roll!" Lando yelled, "Everybody hold on tight!" Kess heard the yell and grabbed Luke's belts with both hands. She pulled herself on top of him and straddled his lap simply because his straps were the only thing nearby to hold onto.

The ship suddenly lurched from a bad hit. Lando slammed on the stick and the Falcon went spinning wildly downward.

Han's scream could be heard throughout the ship as the Falcon nose-dived into the ocean.

Hoppers slowed and hovered over the spot. A few second later an explosion burst underneath the surface, sending large bubbles of fire to the churning surface of boiling water.

The explosion of the detonator Lando had released from the ship sent a wave of pressure against the hull and knocked the air tight integrity off balance. Han's gun turret sprang a leak and was instantly closed with lime green autofoam. He ripped the headset from his ear and yelled, "This is a space vessel! Not a submarine!"

Kess pulled her body from Luke's and stumbled towards the bridge. Finding Han on the way, they barely exchanged glances. The floor rocked in the water as they made it into the bridge.

Lando sat in the pilot's chair; his mouth agape in shock at the sight. Kess and Han, and then Chewie, stood in the bridge staring out the window and watched tiny bubbles rise as the ship sank fathoms into the ocean.

Han complained in disbelief, "You sank my ship!"

Lando turned to him, "It was the only way we could get cover for the hull repair. It'll take them hours to get a sub vessel out to us."

Han went to the window and stared out at the light shining down through the soupy blue water. "We're sinking!"

A loud groan echoed through the walls. Everyone stopped to listen. The current rocked the ship and the Falcon kept falling slowly downward.

Kess looked around the room, imagining the pressure of the ocean and realized that the ship was designed for the pressure to be pulling _outward_. She spoke softly, "We're gonna be crushed like a tin can." 

Chewie hooted pessimistically.

"No!" Han shouted, "she can handle space, and she can handle the water." On cue, the ship shuddered violently, tilting a few degrees off center and a loud crack sounded from the cargo bay. 

All four bodies raced into the bay and stopped dumbfounded to find the autofoam of another hull breach split, shooting high pressure water onto the floor. Han ripped open the storage locker and armed himself with a portable canister. He aimed the nozzle and shot autofoam into the crack. The lime green foam went solid in milliseconds after it hit the air, sealing the crack with large chucks. Rock like foam rattled down on the wet floor like a hail storm, but at least the water stopped coming in.

Lando moved around the edge, splashing his feet in the water and disappeared around the port hall. Zoiy had successfully strapped in Leia, but apparently lost her grip for the wild tumble into the ocean. Across the back of her head was an ugly gash where she'd knocked around the passageway like a loose marble. Lando lifted her body and proceeded to tie her down in the nearest empty bunk.

Chewie was growling wildly at Threepio who refused to remove himself from the straps at the game table. "I can't balance on unstable surface. It's best if Artoo and I remained strapped in until the ship settles on the ocean floor."

Kess pulled the sheet metal from the floor of the passageway and drug it to the access tube for the upper hatch. "Shut the droids down so they don't short out in this water. It's gonna get worse."

Han lowered the foam nozzle, "What are you doing?"

Kess pulled out a T-suit from the closet. "I'm going to repair that hull breach."

Han motioned to argue but the hull groaned loudly again. For some unseen reason, the port side of the ship began sinking faster than the starboard side, sending the floor rapidly to a fifteen degree angle. Both Han and Chewie slipped in the water and fell on their rear ends. Kess held on to the locker door and hung as her feet slid out from under her. Then the ship jerked to a stop, shuddering, as it crunched rocks below and nestled to a stop. 

Kess pulled her feet under her again and immediately started donning the T-suit. "Hook me up with a life line."

Han scrambled to her, "What do you need a lifeline for? It's water. You can paddle back."

"I don't know how to paddle."

Lando came up behind, "Let one of us go."

"No. You guys are too important to lose and it's my job anyway." She locked the bubble hood down on her head. "You make sure that this boat can still fly."

The door slid around her, shutting off the tiny closet from the rest of the air tight ship. She glanced one in the small rectangular window to see Han and Lando back up and watch, and shoved up on the manual release. The door slid aside, pounding her with water. The air from the ship rose in two giant bubbles and, in seconds, Kess was floating, completely surrounded by water. 

Determined, she rose up clumsily on the ladder and pulled herself out of the ship. The water was a thick blue in these depths, visibility at less than two meters. The T-suit bubbled up in her arms and under her belt. She checked the lifeline, took a careful step, and bobbed.

Strangely, the gravity seemed much lighter down here. Feeling only half her weight, she took another light step. The current pushed her slowly forward but not so much that she couldn't compensate her balance.

Regaining confidence, she bobbed forward with springy steps. Kess giggled at her sluggish movements, and added sound effect to her light walk, "Sproing. Sproing. Sproing." Reaching the open the hull panel, she stopped and dropped the sheet metal. She pulled her legs out from under her simultaneously and fell slowly to her knees. "They gotta make a drug that does this."

Han's voice crackled over the intercom, "Shut up and just fix the hull."

Kess bent over to the gaping hole, "Sorry, I didn't know I was on the air."

Inside, Han wiped his brow with weary fingers. "I'm going to go pay some medical attention to our wounded. Chewie, check the integrity readings and see if that the only hole in our walls."

Chewie grumbled weakly.

Lando looked, "Han, I think we should lay him down and give him some medical attention too."

Chewie looked up tired and growled an agreement.

Lando patted his back, "I'll check the integrity readings."

Han grabbed a med kit and followed Chewie down the starboard hall. He checked on Leia as Chewie went to lay down. She had no obvious wounds except for the clotted prick on her neck. Han didn't know what to do except check her belts and try to make her comfortable.

Chewie was already half strapped and half asleep when Han reached him. The Wookiee had a knot on the back of his head the size of an asteroid and dried blood crusted a large patch of his fur. Han gave him an ice pack and painkiller and affectionately scrubbed the fur on his undamaged arm. "Get some sleep, pal. I'll get us home."

Zoiy lay unconscious in Kess' bunk, the blood smeared fresh on the pillow. He gently rested her head in the ice pack and checked her straps. He had one ice pack left and, knowing that Luke was in the same near undamaged condition as Leia, put it on his own head as he approached Luke's bunk. 

He leaned his shoulder against the wall next to Luke and looked down at the sleeping kid. He checked for pulse with a single finger, it was good, and he was breathing too. 

"You trained her good, kid." He muttered as he checked the straps. "Too bad you weren't awake to see it."

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

A large object floated into view. Kess paid it no mind and kept working until she noticed that the object was floating towards her, against the current.

She froze and looked only with her eyes. A floating animal with tiny fluttery wings for arms and legs moved through the water towards her. It was only about a foot wide but its oval shaped body was more than six feet tall. Shiny scales reflected the light in brilliant turquoises and blues with a wild fluorescent orange stripe waving across its middle. Wide yellow eyes with no lids looked at her curiously. An eye on each side of the fish and pouting lips formed a rubbery mouth.

Kess stared at the creature but her hands kept working. The kazap of each spot weld was probably what attracted the animal to the scene. It floated slowly towards her and paused a few feet away. Its body barely wriggled to move along side so its wide unblinkable eye could watch her work on the hull.

Kazap! The hull was done and Kess slowly stood. Careful not to spook the animal, she readied to move back towards the upper access tube. When she came to full height, the fish backed up an inch. Kess started walking slowly backwards, cautious, but admiring the colorful designs of its scales.

It mouth moved, letting a tiny bubble emerge from its lips, but then the lips parted further and unsheathed four, long, fat, white teeth. Its lower jaw bent down more than a ninety degree angle, and the teeth kept coming. Two on top, and two on bottom, until the sharp tusks parted at a terrifying foot in length each.

Kess scrambled backwards. Once curious eyes now looked hungry. The fish whipped its tail and came at her with amazing speed. Its parted teeth clanged against the tiny opening of the shaft just as Kess fell backwards into it and screamed.

"What?! What?!"

_Bang!_ The fish stabbed its face against the shaft confused why the metal wouldn't give under his attack. 

"There's a big fish out here!" She pushed the control to close the door. The fish banged its head on the sudden solid wall.

The closet wall slid aside, pouring gallons of water into the cargo bay. Kess poured out with it and fell onto the floor.

Han had his hands out to his sides, "Of course there's a fish out there!" he yelled. "It's an ocean!"

Kess stood up and pulled off the bubble helmet. "No. Its a _big_ fish." She held her hands up as high as she could reach it, "with _big_ teeth," she held her hands out to demonstrate the foot long tusks, "and a _big_ appetite." She held her hands out to her sides again as far as she could reach them.

Clang!

She pointed behind her, "See?"

Han looked at the ceiling and imagined some fish thinking his ship was lunch. "Well, lets get out of here. The hull done?"

"Yes sir!" Kess followed the Captain into the bridge and strapped in, still in her wet T-suit.

With Lando in the copilots seat and Han at the helm, arms sped across the console and system by system the Falcon hummed to life. 

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

A haze gray ship bobbed in the water accompanied by a hydrofoil and several smaller vessels. Sailors swarmed the decks and the haze gray ship was preparing to lower a sub-marine probe into the fathoms below.

The water in the center of the mass began to churn, but before all the personnel on deck even had a chance to turn completely around, the massive disc shape of the Falcon went ballistic out of the water like the ocean had spit out a nasty morsel.

The Falcon spun on its axis and punched though the ozone layer. A single Star Destroyer floated in orbit not far away, but before it could even arm its guns, the Falcon adjusted its vector, armed its nose to a distant star and disappeared into streaks as it went into hyperspace.

**  **  **  **  **  **  **  **  **

Kess shed the soaking wet T-suit and was back in the same civilian clothes she'd been wearing all night and all day yesterday. The peach shirt and jeans were smudged with grease from repairing the Falcon's bridge fuse box, speckled with auburn sand from chasing mugrats on the beach, stained with the blue and white alcohol she had dribbled at the bar, caked with dust from a years-untouched elevator shaft, and salty wet from the splashes of ocean that seeped in while she fled from a giant meat-eating fish. She shuffled her tired feet, pulling her dirty hair from her braids and letting the knots hang however they pleased down her back and shoulders. Her thighs and shoulders were sore from the climb, her feet hurt, she was hungry, and she realized that she had totally skipped the drunk part when her hangover kicked in. 

Her shoulder dropped against the wall in the port side passageway when she stopped to look at Luke still strapped in his bunk, still in his pajamas, still comatose.

She thought heavily about the events over the last 24 hours and fell to her knees in the passageway. She propped her elbow on the bunk next to his ankles and dug her fingers into her bangs, "I am so sorry."

"'Sorry' isn't going to get you out of this one." Han said deeply from behind her. He crossed his arms arrogantly at his chest and leaned his back against the opposite wall of the passageway. "You wanna tell me why the Frakkan government want your head bad enough to put my wife and your Jedi Master into a drug induced coma?"

Kess didn't look at him, she simply closed her eyes and sighed, "I swear I don't know."

"Bantha fodder," he hissed under his breath.

She turned to him without peeling her tired body off the ground, "I didn't even know I was the Usak until after you guys were already captured!"

Han inhaled like he was going to rip her throat out-

But Lando stopped him, "She's telling the truth. I'm the one that pointed that out to her." 

Han glared at him.

Lando shrugged defensively. "She may have had something to do with it, I won't deny that, but she didn't know she was the Usak."

Kess waved an arm at Lando, "If I were so evil, don't you think it wouldn't have shown up in my security check?"

Han dropped his arms and yelled, "You didn't go through a security check! That's what alerted us that this trip of yours was staged!"

Kess sneered at Han as he strolled away fretfully, and then stopped short, glancing at the comatose Jedi Master in the bunk, "Yes, I did." She pointed at Luke sheepishly, then paused, "That's how Luke knew my name was Kesselia…." Her words faded in realization just as Lando's voice pointed out the facts to her again.

"The Jedi Knight is not above lying, Kess."

Kess caught her breath and put her hand over her mouth. Luke Skywalker lied?! All this time, she took Luke's every word and comment as the unarguable truth, latched to him like her only friend through the entire, long repair-in-air, undercover, in Imperial territory… for treaty negotiations over the Usak….

What else had he lied about?

Kess suddenly realized just where she stood with Luke, the closest thing she had to a friend on this trip, and her stomach started to sink. She didn't care what Han thought about her anymore, and she was only vaguely worried about the trouble she was going to face when she got home. What she fretted most about was Luke: what he thought about her now? what he was going to do about her being the Usak? what kind of punishment he would come up with over Kess using completely and using a real lightsaber without his prior approval. What made it worse was that she had to wait and fester and worry before she could do anything about it.


End file.
